The second board meeting of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) presided over by Chairman Admiral (r) Fasih Bokhari on Wednesday approved references against various government functionaries for misappropriation of public funds. While approving references against illegal allotment of lands, embezzlement and misuse of authority in government departments, the NAB chairman stressed on the need for prioritising the cases for accountability with a focus on the recovery of colossal public money at stake. He said there was a need to take up malpractice cases with regulatory authorities so that they could play their role in preventing crimes in the society.
“If regulatory bodies take appropriate and timely action, the crime level can be reasonably brought down,” the chairman remarked, urging the monitoring of regulatory bodies and warned them that any default on their part would be dealt with seriously. However, the meeting approved references against WAPDA executive engineer Abdul Rasheed, Gulraiz Raza and officers of the sales tax department for causing losses to the public exchequer through bogus sales refunds. During the meeting, it was decided in the references that the regulatory bodies be asked to explain the nature of action already taken by them so as to facilitate the filing of references against the accused with the accountability courts.