In a parliamentary testimony on Nov 3, the Ministry of Finance had expressed full ignorance in regards to the whereabouts of over Rs821 billion, besides Rs6.458bn, that the NAB claimed to have recovered since its inception some 16 years in the past. The PPP had subsequently demanded a probe on the matter, whereas the NAB had issued a report detailing the recoveries it made since its inception in 1999.
Addressing a ceremony in Lahore, Iqbal termed the episode a “storm in a teacup”. He mentioned a bulk of the recoveries made by NAB weren’t within the type of forex payments however in bodily property resembling property, land and wheat.
“A whole audit of NAB has been carried out 3 times, and with God’s grace, aside from two to 4 strange lapses, nothing [unusual or strange] got here to the fore,” he mentioned.
“So when this storm in a teacup was created then those accountable did not know that NAB has stored a file of each single penny,” Iqbal mentioned.
The NAB chairman mentioned within the 4 years below him the accountability watchdog registered 1,270 references involving a sum of Rs1,386 billion.
He mentioned not one of the references had been “made up within the air”, including that the bureau would nonetheless be reviewing all of the 1,270 references.
“The place NAB feels some that some references are very weak or very outdated and typically convictions do not occur as a result of there are technical causes […] we’re reviewing them once more and whether it is felt [that references are weak then we will close them].”
Responding to criticism on NAB circumstances not reaching their conclusion, the chairman mentioned a case reaches its “logical finish” when a reference is shipped to the related courtroom. He defined that deciding on circumstances was the job of accountability courts and never of the watchdog.