Islamabad (April 18, 2018): Chairman National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal said on Wednesday that the anti-corruption inquiries by the bureau will be completed swiftly and properly.
This he stated while interacting with reporters on his way to brief the Public Accounts Committee of the National Assembly.
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In response to a question, the NAB chief said if someone starts to pull the bureau’s strings, he will pick up his “briefcase and leave”.
Justice Iqbal added that a person who can pull NAB’s strings has not been born yet.
In response to a question, the NAB chief said the bureau has no concern with when and if elections are held.
He stated further that if someone has done corruption then he or she is answerable before and after the elections.
The NAB chief also said that it is not his job to stop former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.
Earlier, he asked members of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the National Assembly to keep faith in the accountability watchdog.
In a briefing to the PAC, he assured committee members that all pending inquiries will be dealt with soon and properly.
Talking about Ali Jahangir Siddiqui, the ambassador designate to the United States, Iqbal said steps had been taken to place his name on the Exit Control List but a court of law had refrained the bureau from proceeding further in this regard.
Following the PAC hearing, he told reporters that no power can pull the strings of the bureau.
“The volume of corruption is discussed when it is within a limit, but the situation is far worse now,” he said in response to a question.
“The committee expressed its confidence in the bureau. Currently, there is no power which can pull the strings of NAB. I will take my bag and quit the institution if a string is pulled,” he assured.
He made it clear that NAB was not taking “revenge” and that he will take full responsibility and leave his position if discrimination or revenge is proved in his actions.
He said that refraining Nawaz Sharif [from leaving the country] was not his responsibility. “The bureau has nothing to do with holding or not holding general elections,” he said.
Some inquiries have already been started, whereas some others are yet to be initiated, he explained in response to another question, adding that red notices have been issued to bring back some wanted accused from the United Kingdom to Pakistan.
“A lot of proclaimed offenders will be brought back in the coming days,” he said.
“Our interior minister had never been so powerful as to hand over people to other countries,” he said while responding to a question on the reports of former dictator Pervez Musharraf handing over wanted individuals to the US in exchange for money.
The incumbent NAB chairman had previously headed a high level commission investigating missing persons.
“Those in the corridors of powers should be questioned in this regard,” he said when a reporter attempted to probe the matter further.
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