- Cases against parliamentarians still ongoing: NAB chief.
- Lt Gen (retd) Ahmed slams IMF’s diagnostic report on Pakistan.
- NAB chief questions credibility of Transparency International.
National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Lt Gen (retd) Nazir Ahmed on Wednesday said that new real estate reforms will be introduced within two months, aiming to overhaul regulatory practices.
“The reforms will be presented before the federal cabinet for approval,” he said during an informal media briefing, adding that the existing file system would be abolished after implementation.
The NAB chairman said that full responsibility would rest with real estate developers under the proposed changes.
The NAB chief added that cases against members of parliament were still ongoing, but the bureau no longer issued press releases on such matters.
He said that NAB had referred several cases to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and anti-corruption departments, while emphasising that suspects deserved the same respect as investigators.
“The current NAB does not agree with what NAB did in the past,” he added.
Lt Gen (retd) Ahmed also criticised the International Monetary Fund’s diagnostic report on Pakistan as “completely baseless”, saying the IMF would never grant a “clean chit” to any country.
Last year, the IMF’s Governance and Corruption Diagnostic Assessment (GCDA) warned that persistent corruption and weak institutions continue to undermine the country’s economic development even as it stabilises under an Extended Fund Facility (EFF).
Meanwhile, the NAB chief questioned the credibility of Transparency International, asking about its funding sources and survey methodology. “How can a survey of the entire country be conducted with 800 people?” he said.
Highlighting the bureau’s performance, he said that NAB’s recoveries over the past three months were unprecedented globally.
He clarified that all recovered funds were deposited into the federal consolidated fund, with none retained by the bureau.
