In a historic achievement, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) recovered Rs 3.8 trillion or $13.57 billion in just one year, Anti-Corruption Watchdog Chairman Lt Gen (retd) Nazir Ahmed announced on Monday.
Addressing a special event organized on the occasion of Anti-Corruption Day, Chairman NAB said that since its inception, NAB has directly or indirectly recovered 6.1 trillion rupees.
He appreciated the excellent performance of NAB Karachi, Sukkur and KP. Ahmed said that NAB Karachi and Sukkur regions have saved Rs 2.4 trillion and Rs 1.1 trillion respectively by reclaiming forest land covering an area of 1.8 million hectares.
Similarly, KP NAB has achieved indirect and consequential savings of Rs 194.9 billion.
Apart from this, NAB has processed 22 thousand applications. Chairman NAB further said that due to the reforms, registration of false complaints has been discouraged as a result of which such complaints have come down from 4000 to only 400 per month.
He asserted that corruption in any form is the biggest obstacle to sustainable development and economic prosperity.
Chairman NAB reiterated his commitment to fight corruption, protect national assets, recover embezzled funds and return them to the people.
Deputy Chairman of NAB Sohail Nasir, representative of UNODC in Pakistan and a large number of senior officers of NAB participated in the ceremony.
He added that 65 percent of the country’s population is below 30 years of age and youth represent the future.
“To achieve this objective, a public awareness program will be initiated in collaboration with academic and research institutions with various stakeholders.”
He further said that NAB is not only dedicated to fighting corruption but has also shown exceptional performance in safeguarding national assets, recovering stolen funds and returning them to the people.
Addressing the function, Chairman NAB urged the officers to work with utmost dedication and zeal to provide speedy relief to the victims in the real estate sector.
He also said that the anti-corruption watchdog has signed memorandums of understanding with 10 countries to speed up corruption cases.