National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Lt Gen (retd) Nazir Ahmad Butt said that the anti-corruption watchdog will approach parliament with a request to reduce the current Rs500 million threshold required to initiate action in corruption cases.
As per reports, NAB Chairman Butt, while addressing a press conference, said that the current threshold has allowed many individuals to plan and execute corrupt activities below the limit to evade prosecution. He stressed that lowering this threshold would improve NAB’s ability to tackle corruption at all levels.
The threshold was raised in 2022 following amendments made by the PML-N-led coalition government after the PTI government’s removal. Under the revised National Accountability Ordinance (NAO) 1999, NAB’s jurisdiction was limited to corruption cases involving sums exceeding Rs500 million.
During his first press briefing since taking office in March 2023, Butt presented a performance review of the NAB. He highlighted that since its establishment in 1999, NAB had recovered a total of $3.15 billion. However, under his tenure, the bureau has recovered an impressive $29.99 billion. These figures include cash recoveries amounting to Rs1,124 billion (around $4 billion), with the remainder in the form of assets.
NAB’s performance over the last 26 years was also discussed, with Butt noting that while the government had allocated Rs62 billion to the bureau, NAB’s recoveries totaled Rs9 trillion. He claimed that no other anti-corruption agency in the world had matched NAB’s performance.
Addressing concerns of money laundering, chairman NAB expressed frustration that corrupt individuals who siphon off Pakistan’s wealth often invest in countries like the US, Europe, and Canada, where their assets go unchallenged. He pointed out that despite having around 165,000 Pakistani students studying abroad, only a few pay taxes in Pakistan.
Butt also shared the difficulties NAB faces when attempting to obtain data on these transactions, noting that it sometimes takes up to seven years to receive a response, with information often withheld under the guise of protecting politically exposed individuals.
