National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Fasih Bukhari on Saturday said that due to unabated corruption, the national treasury was facing losses of worth 6-8 billion rupees per day.
The NAB chairman said that the bureau’s job was to recover the ‘stolen’ money, not prosecute. He however added that if anyone was found guilty, they would be prosecuted.
He also made an effort to portray the NAB as unbiased, stating that no political cases would be opened against PML-N leadership for the time being as the country had already entered the election year.
NAB chief also made an effort to take credit of the NAB’s achievements made under General Musharraf’s era and claimed that the NAB had recovered Rs 235 billion from the corrupt till date. “However, let me admit that this is not enough,” he said, adding that the government had given approval for recruiting 300 new investigators for the ‘under-staffed’ NAB.
He also made an effort to distance the NAB from the government-judiciary confrontation and said that the investigation into Dr Iftikhar’s case was being made on the orders of the apex court.
Responding to a query about opening of money laundering case against Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz chief Nawaz Sharif and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, Bukhari stated that NAB was reviewing the references put forward by Rehman Malik against Sharif brothers. However, he made it clear that the NAB would not open any political case for the time being as the country had already entered an election year.
Bukhari said that even though the Sharif brothers’ case could yield three billion rupees and the Swiss letter case some six billion rupees, but it was the case of former Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) chairman, Tauqeer Sadiq, that could retrieve some 55 billion rupees to the treasury. He told media that a warrant would be issued for Tauqeer Sadiq’s arrest.
Referring to the rental power project case, Bukhari expressed ignorance about Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf’s name being put on the Exit Control List by the FIA, even though he admitted to the fact that the Raja Pervaiz was interrogated for three hours by the NAB before he assumed charge as prime minister.
