NAB recovers Rs3.595b during last year
By Fakhar Alam

ISLAMABAD—National Accountability Bureau (NAB) recovered an amount of Rs. 3.595 billion during the year- 2007 and arrested 234 persons for their involvement in embezzlement and other fraud cases.
According to the sources, there have been 92 cases of Plea Bargain and Voluntary Return during the year- 2007 in which an amount of Rs. 2,050.530 million has been agreed for payment by the accused out of which Rs. 1485.887 million have been recovered so far.
In bank default cases, money is also recovered through settlement with the firms/accused in consultation with concerned banks. During the year- 2007, an amount of Rs. 1894.158 million has been recovered through settlement out of 13 default cases.
NAB issued arrest warrants of 368 accused persons during the year under review out of which 234 were arrested while other 314 are still at large.
Combined with the number of persons at large pertaining to previous years, the total of accused persons still at large comes to 198.
NAB remains in constant touch with police authorities to arrest the accused persons, the sources added.
In all, 125 persons are wanted to NAB Punjab, 22 to NAB Sindh, 11 to NAB NWFP, Nine to Balochistan, 24 to Rawalpindi while seven are wanted to NAB headquarters for involvement in various cases. Likewise, NAB received 12,466 complaints during the year 2007 reaching a total of 15, 268 complaints including the backlog.
Out of these, 13,391 complaints were processed (completed, declared NFA, referred to departments etc) and 1877 complaints are currently pending.
A complaint is converted into inquiry after its verification. The priority is given to cases involving interest of public at large and where the corruption is in excess of Rs. 100 million is detected.
During the year- 2007, 636 fresh inquiries were authorized by the NAB thus raising the figure to 1361 including the backlog. Out of total inquires, 720 inquires were finalized leading to closure and formal investigation whereas 641 inquires are currently under process.
In the last year, NAB authorized 266 new investigations thus reaching a total of 726 investigations including the backlog. Out of the total
investigations, 332 investigations were finalized while the remaining 394 investigation are under process.
During the last year, NAB filed 315 references in Accountability Courts, reaching a total of 720 cases including the case already pending in trial courts.
The court proceedings are contested at three tiers i.e Accountability Courts, High Courts and the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
An amount of Rs. 70.843717 million was also spent on the welfare of employees in form of bonus ex-gratia, honoraria and reward money, the sources added.