LAHORE: Chairman NAB Justice (r) Javed Iqbal said that the NAB would continue its ‘Jihad’ against corruption even after the Bureau received threats of bomb attack on its headquarters.
The NAB Chairman said NAB officials were not afraid and would continue to perform their duties with dedication and asserted that ‘death and life is in hands of Allah. We do not fear from anyone except Allah and His Prophet (PBUH)’.
As per details, Customs Today raised the issue of billions of rupees green channel mega smuggling and senior journalist Asad Kharal lodged a complaint with Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar who took the notice and ordered the concerned authorities of FBR to submit the reply. The court associate also sent a copy to the NAB for necessary action. Soon after lodging the complaint, smugglers of green channel or corrupt mafia of Customs Dept attacked Kharal near Lahore Airport and assaulted him severely. Kharal hinted at Rs500-1000 billion corruption cases in the Supreme Court and NAB as cause of his attack. He also warned that due to these high-profile corruption cases, even the CJP and NAB chairman were not safe enough saying that ‘the mafia can also target the chief justice and the NAB chairman and I advise them to step up their security’. Now the Chairman NAB has received the threats, possibly from corrupt mafia or smugglers of green channel.
Furthermore, the NAB Chairman visited Lahore office of the Bureau and appreciated performance of its officials under supervision of its Director General Shahzad Saleem as it recovered Rs 18 billion from corrupt people and returned the amount to the affectees in a short span of just 7 months, taking the level of trust of common people on the institution to new heights. The NAB also brought 1328 culprits to the justice in this period.
He said the Bureau has taken up mega corruption cases and in next few days, several mega corruption references would be filed in accountability courts with solid evidences.
He said it is for the first time in 70 years that NAB has asked the corrupt elements why powers given to them were not used in a transparent manner and why money collected from taxpayers was looted with both hands.
He said NAB would prefer case over face and it has nothing to do with elections, adding that NAB’s only purpose is to serve Pakistan and eliminate corruption. He hoped that NAB Lahore would continue its good work in future as well.
“Billions of rupees corruption was witnessed in Punjab in companies’ scandal. Corrupt elements would be dealt with iron hands as per law. We have promoted the culture of ‘work, work and work’ in NAB,” he added.
Since Javed Iqbal took charge in October last year, NAB has filed 101 references out of 179 mega corruption cases registered with the watchdog.