ISLAMABAD: The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has sought details of assets of all the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) directors, their spouses and dependents, and their duration of stay at one seat, within one month.

Noor Alam Khan chaired the committee meeting which invited acting chairman NAB for a detailed briefing on NAB recoveries. The chairman said that details of vehicles and concessions used by NAB officials should be provided to the committee.

“Accepting gifts of NAB officials is also corruption and they must provide response on same questionnaires sent to politicians who are facing NAB inquires”, he added.

When no audit para of the NAB was included in the agenda of the PAC meeting, the chairman of the committee got angry and asked why no audit para of NAB was included in the agenda.

The Auditor General of Pakistan said that a report had been prepared on the recoveries of the NAB and the committee should examine the report which had raised serious observations.

Member Committee Saleem Mandviwalla said in the meeting that the NAB had so far recovered Rs 820 billion while according to the additional secretary finance, Rs 15 billion had been deposited in the consolidated fund since the inception of the NAB.

Citing former chairman NAB Javel Iqbal’s statements on various occasions, Saleem said that showed that he (the chairman) did not tell the truth as acting chairman NAB was saying they were maintaining one account and not depositing money in the consolidated fund.

Chairman Committee Noor Alam Khan said that audit of any recovery is mandatory. He directed the AGP to conduct an audit of the NAB recoveries whether it was federal government money, provinces or private.

Noor Alam Khan also demanded an inquiry report on the Broadsheet issue and an amount recovered from EDEN Housing Society. Acting Chairman NAB Zahir Shah said in the briefing that there is recovery money in one account in the Prime Minister’s Secretariat.

He said what they recovered from provinces or private returned them. Noor Alam Khan further said that the NAB does not apologise to anyone for not proving the case, the NAB never wrote a letter of thanks to any honest officer or politician.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022