Lahore: Chairman of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Lieutenant General (R) Nazir Ahmed, has said that NAB believes in practical measures rather than symbolic Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs), announcing that individuals involved in defrauding the public will have their photographs published in newspaper advertisements.
Addressing a ceremony in Lahore, the NAB chairman said that the business community had not been given the status and recognition it deserved. He stated that he had received 20 cases from chambers and business forums and that 19 of those cases had been resolved.
He said that half of Lahore’s Ring Road had involved government land being given to private individuals and then reacquired from them. He added that an economy worth $18 billion would be generated in Punjab.
Nazir Ahmed further said that fraudsters who deceive the public would now be exposed through newspaper advertisements carrying their photographs, making it difficult for them to show their faces in society. He added that NAB had formulated a comprehensive strategy for the real estate sector and was preparing to introduce major reforms.
According to the NAB chairman, real estate transactions would take place among three parties, while no property deal would be conducted in cash. He said that after four to five months, files would no longer hold any value in property transactions.
He further stated that every plot would be assigned a barcode-based number, preventing fraudulent practices involving files. All approvals related to the real estate sector would be available under one roof, while a NAB officer at the director level would be included in the regulatory board.
Speaking on recoveries, the NAB chairman said that the bureau had recovered Rs15,000 billion over the past three years. He added that from 1999 to 2023, recoveries amounted to Rs880 billion, while NAB had increased that figure to Rs15,000 billion during the last three years.
