NAB recovered Rs714 billion since establishment: Javed Iqbal

 ISLAMABAD: Chairman National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal on Sunday said that they have concrete evidence of money laundering worth billions of rupees from the country, ARY NEWS reported.

Criticizing those who claim that there was no money laundering from the country, the NAB chairman said that billions of rupees were transferred illegally abroad. He further said that money laundering was the major reason behind the ill-constructed infrastructure in the country.

He said that even people were fooled in the name of religion through the Modarba scandal.

Shedding light on the performance of the NAB, Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal said that since its establishment, the accountability watchdog deposited Rs 714 billion looted from the national exchequer.

He said that the NAB was responsible for probing white-collar crime and such cases needed time to collect evidence. “We have detected billions of rupees being transferred abroad through benami accounts in the name of Falooda wala [ice cream seller] and chabri wala [pedlar],” he said.

It is pertinent to mention here that the Federal Investigation Authority (FIA) received over 400 money laundering cases from the country, a report of the agency revealed showing an increase in the number of such cases during 2020.

“The country reported 409 cases of money laundering during the outgoing year 2020,” a report of the FIA said adding that for the first time, even police authorities also referred the money laundering cases to the agency.

It said that the FIA received 289 cases of money laundering, referred by the police department. A meeting of the FIA was held in Karachi, where it was decided to register 105 cases against the referred cases.