LAHORE: National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Javed Iqbal on Thursday complained that Punjab government departments are not cooperating with the anti-graft watchdog, warning that such attitude will not be tolerated in the future.
Addressing a ceremony, the former apex court judge said that they shall make all-out efforts to reject bail of influential culprits who pressurise witnesses, and to protect witnesses. He added that those who give directives on someone’s orders will eventually have to bear the brunt of their wrongdoings.
However, Iqbal added, he will try to eradicate corruption till he is in office. It is necessary to clean one’s own house before raising fingers on someone else’s, he said.
About the anti-graft body, Iqbal said NAB is not biased towards anyone. Even NAB officials will be tried if complaint is received against them, he added.
Regarding bureaucracy, the NAB chief said it is the backbone of a country. “[But] will not tolerate lack of cooperation on part of the bureaucracy.”
The NAB chief also spoke about scams pertaining to private housing schemes, saying their owners should know they would be tried.
“Those getting conned by private housing scheme [owners] include pensioners and poor people,” Iqbal said, adding that owners of such housing schemes show people pleasant dreams of getting a roof but the reality of such projects is “horrible”.
“If owners of private housing schemes cannot provide a roof then they should [at least] reimburse people,” Iqbal added.
The NAB chief said private housing scheme owners make projects but seldom read the rules, one of which also requires them to keep interest rate low.
Wish him all the best. For a long time, this department was hostage to politicians, the ‘Musical Chair Players’ ( PPP and PML(N) in particular. ” we will trip the wings of NAB according to size” said Nawaz Sharif when it was reluctant to obey his orders. It also had the biggest turn over of Chairmans like PIA but to no avail. The convicted army Major was one of the worst performers to deny accountability. Chaudhry had flatly refused to investigate Panama case desired by the present Apex Court. This prompted the Apex Court to classify NAB as protector of corruption. Most cases swept under the carpet by the previous NAB Chairman are coming out one by one.
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