–NAB spokesperson says govt’s attitude is non-cooperative
LAHORE: The Punjab government is trying to dodge the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) by submitting the record of non-operational, non-existent and on-papers-only companies in the guise of 56 companies, Pakistan Today has reliably learned.
Following the orders of Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mian Saqib Nisar, the Punjab government is bound to submit the record of 56 companies for the alleged corruption to the tune of Rs80 billion. The government has apparently assured the Supreme Court (SC) that it will provide the record of all companies to NAB as, according to it, there was no corruption in these companies and everything was crystal clear there through a self-accountability mechanism and internal audit.
However, reliable sources said that the Punjab government submitted the record of only 39 companies to NAB and that too the initial record such as agreements. The Punjab government has set up more than 70 companies to bring good governance in the province, out of which some were non-existent and others were non-operational.
The government gimmicked NAB by submitting the record of these non-operational companies to the anti-graft body which has worried the investigators.
NAB Punjab spokesperson Muhammad Zeeshan confirmed that the government was reluctant to submit the record of the companies. He said that the government had admitted that there were 63 companies, out of which 56 were operational and the rest were not operational. However, he said that the government submitted the record of 39 companies and was dilly-dallying in submitting the record of 17 companies.
“We submitted the report to the SC in the last hearing that the provincial government has not submitted the record of 17 companies. The SC ordered the government to submit the record to NAB at the earliest,” he said.
Talking about attitude of the Punjab government, NAB spokesman said that the government’s attitude is non-cooperative.
“The government submitted initially the demanded record but it is not cooperating in submitting any further record for more investigations,” he added.
Talking about corruption in 56 companies, Zeeshan said that NAB had arrested Punjab Power Development Company Chief Operating Officer (CFO) Ikram Naveed on April 13 in an alleged Rs120 million scam.
Similarly, he said that four people were arrested in Saaf Pani Company Project Bahawalpur for corruption in the installation of 116 filtration plants there. They include Chief Technical Officer (CTO) Dr Zaheer Uddin, Chief Procurement Officer (CPO) Nasir Qadir Bhaddal, Consultant Engineer Muhammad Saleem and Muhammad Masud Akhtar.
He revealed that Anti-Corruption Establishment director general was reluctant to submit the record of some companies and has asked the NAB to get permission from Punjab chief secretary. The anti-corruption DG further made the excuse that the matter was sub-judice before the anti-corruption court, therefore, it cannot give the record to NAB.
He said that an inquiry was initiated against him for the misuse of authority in NAB as he was bound by the law to submit the record to NAB and finally, NAB succeeded to get the record from the anti-corruption court.
He said that corruption of hundreds of millions of rupees had taken place in these companies and further revelations will be made with the passage of time.
