NAB chairman rejects business community’s concerns about watchdog as ‘completely baseless’ – Pakistan

The president of the National Office of Accountability (NAB), Javed Iqbal, on Sunday refuted the reservations that the business community had recently expressed about monitoring accountability as "completely unfounded."

While addressing a press conference in Islamabad, Iqbal said he was surprised when he learned that an individual had expressed reservations about NAB at the much-discussed meeting between the Army Chief of Staff (COAS), General Qamar Javed Bajwa and some of the Pakistanis. most powerful business magnates on Wednesday.

However, the NAB president said that a few days earlier, the same individual had written a letter to the office where he had applauded his services.

Iqbal said he would not name the businessman, since he did not want to affect anyone's image, but said that if the individual had reservations, he should have shared them with the office.

The NAB president added that not only a business mogul, but at least three, had written letters to the bureau in which they praised him.

He said he would provide those letters if necessary. Iqbal expressed his gratitude for praising NAB and for expressing his reservations.

"Every person or institution can make failures," he said, adding that God had given intelligence to humans to minimize failures.

The NAB president added that a four-member committee was formed, whose mandate is being determined. He said it could be seen as an "advisory" institution that would discuss the problems of the business community and find solutions for them.

"I want to clarify that the formation of a committee does not mean that NAB is not an independent institution or that NAB is subordinate," he said.

Last week, the business community met with the army chief and Prime Minister Imran Khan.

According to Public Relations between Services (ISPR), the army chief had told a group of businessmen that the "improved internal security environment" of the country "has created space for greater economic activity."

Read: Meeting with COAS was cordial: industry leaders

Meeting participants said they criticized the point that NAB interferes with business activities. "There was a lot of noise about the National Responsibility Office," one person told him Dawn.

The next day, in separate meetings with business barons, Prime Minister Imran assured them that a strategy to address the concerns of the business community regarding NAB had been finalized.

During a meeting, the prime minister told businessmen that the government had decided to form a committee made up of senior people from the industry. The committee would have the mandate to decide which cases with respect to employers should be treated by the NAB and which not.

Saudi style authority

Addressing the press conference today, Iqbal said that while he spoke with businessmen on Thursday at the Chamber of Commerce and Industries of the Pakistan Federation (FPCCI), an individual asked him if the looted wealth could be recovered in four weeks in Saudi Arabia , why couldn't this happen in Pakistan?

"Believe me, NAB has never wanted to be granted a power similar to that of the Saudi model," he said, adding: "I don't know that Pakistan is an independent country, has a Constitution, a rule of law and an active judiciary. And all the institutions are working in their places?

Iqbal said it would be a "very strange request" to ask for authority that is only possible in a monarchy.

"NAB has never expressed its desire to receive power in the Saudi style."

He clarified that what he had said was that if they had the authority available in Saudi Arabia, it would take three weeks to recover the looted wealth.