NAB approaches superior judiciary for early hearing of 1,138 corruption references

ISLAMABAD: Expressing dismay over inordinate delay in hearing of corruption references pending in different courts of the country, National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal decided to write a letter to the chief justices of all high courts and Supreme Court, seeking an early hearing of the cases, said a source privy to the development.

The source said that more than 1,138 corruption references involving Rs960billion are pending in different courts of the country for the last many years, which has now perturbed the NAB chairman who wants to recover the money plundered from the national exchequer.

The source shared the statistics of these corruption references pending in the court saying that over 1,200 corrupt people including politicians, public servants, real-estate owners, industrialists and bankers were involved in these references and had got stay orders from the court in order to skip from the proceedings.

According to details, the NAB chairman will also apprise the judges of Pakistan’s higher judiciary about posts of judges vacant in accountability courts from many years due to lack of government’s interest.

NAB chairman also went through the record of the corruption references pending in the court and expressed his utter disappointment with the incumbent government for its criminal silence over not filling the vacant posts of the judges.

The source said that during the tenure of last two governments – Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) – the performance of accountability court has been dismal and below par.

The chief justices of high courts would be requested to direct subordinate judiciary to hear the corruption references on a priority basis and decide these cases within the stipulated time frame so that the plundered money could be retrieved and be deposited in the national exchequer.