ISLAMABAD: National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman justice (R) Javaid Iqbal on Sunday said he has been successful in making people in power realise that those involved in corruption will be held accountable.
Addressing a ceremony at the President House on occasion of International Anti-Corruption Day Iqbal said, “Governments come and go and no government should feel that NAB is looking at them.”
The accountability watch-dog chairman added, “I have been successful in making people in power realise that those involved in corruption will have to give an answer. It was not very long ago that some people said that NAB was nothing”.
“Those that did say that NAB was nothing, have come to realise that a dead tree is back from the dead,” he added.
He continued, “When I asked someone I found out that instead of spending Rs500,000, Rs5 million were spent and in place of Rs5 million, Rs500 million were spent. This is the poor nation’s money. Those who owned 70cc motorbikes, today own huge towers in Dubai.”
Speaking about those who have been in power for the last 30 years, the NAB chairman said, “Those people who have been in power for the last 30 to 35 years have forgotten that this is not the Mughal era. The era of the Mughals has passed and now the common man and NAB have the power to question why they have done this. When we ask them, we make sure that no one’s self-respect is hurt”.
Turning towards the bureaucrats, Iqbal said, “The bureaucrats’ loyalty should be with the government. Every bureaucrat should go along with the government’s orders which are according to the law.”
He further said that propaganda was done against NAB.
“Why is it that whenever a department is doing work propaganda is speared against them? NAB is in the parliament. No longer will we take the abuse hurled at us.”
The accountability watchdog’s chairman added, “Time is moving forward, we are living in the present and we should make sure our future is better”.
