ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB), under its new chairman Justice (r) Syed Deedar Hussain Shah, who was appointed on October 8, has yet to prepare even a single reference to be filed against any person or institution on corruption charges.
Although a number of cases of corruption, embezzlement and misuse of authority to plunder the national exchequer had surfaced during the last three years, no action has yet been taken by the new NAB chief, reflecting lack of commitment on his part to act against the corrupt.
Probed: A well-placed source informed Pakistan Today that all 17 references approved by the two NAB Executive Board meetings, held since October 8, were prepared and probed by the Musharraf regime in the past.
Minor in nature: The source said that all references filed recently had been pending for approval for years.
However, the source added that the new NAB chief had adopted a pick-and-choose policy, as all these cases were minor in nature and were against low-profile individuals.
“Not a single reference has been filed against Pakistan People’s Party ministers or government officials,” the source said, adding that the NAB in the past had also completed probes against some important personalities for corrupt practices and keeping assets beyond their known sources of income. The NAB had even prepared references in these cases, the source said.
But, he said, approval to pursue these cases was still being awaited. “Even the PPP government has not filed any reference with NAB.
It had filed some against Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) ministers under the Musharraf regime on corruption charges,” the source said, adding that NAB only took action on complaints or references filed by individuals or institutions.
Out of the total 17 references approved by the new NAB chief against individual or institutions include the references against former assistant advocate general of Punjab Seema Munawar for unlawful withdrawal of pension amounting to Rs 4 million, Bahawalpur Women Centre Chairwoman Perveen Ghauri for misappropriating Rs 1 million, Haris Mansoor with other co-accused officials of the Habib Bank Limited for misappropriating Rs 5 million from the bank and former Khyber Pakhtunkhwa health project director Dr Yunus for misuse of authority in making appointments for the project.
References were also approved against Malik Naveed, former Frontier Corps commander, who served from 2005 to 2007, for making recruitment against rules, and Ali Akbar, former project director of the Quetta Pat Feeder Project, along-with other co-accused for causing colossal losses to the public exchequer.
It was also decided at the meeting to re-start cases against Kamoke Textile Mills, Faisalabad, for willful default after vacation of the stay order by the court.
The committee decided to drop charges against Sohrab Khan Kalwar, the Food Department deputy director, for lack of evidence. The second meeting approved cases against Abdul Khaliq of Lahore, for involvement in misappropriation of Rs 205 million, Shamshad Gulzar for misappropriation of funds of the Lahore Mass Transit System, Anwar Rajwani of ARK Garments and Muhammad Ashraf of Noori Corporation for non-payment of Rs 380 million to banks and 17 accused in the land scam of the Pakistan Post Office Employee’s Cooperative Housing Society.
Similarly, a reference against Abdul Hameed Khan, former KP Board of Revenue member was also approved against the exceeding level of assets besides the reference against Ashfaq Khalid of Pakistan Telecommunications Company Limited, Quetta, against misappropriation of Rs20 million.
