SC orders action against beneficiaries of NAB ‘voluntary return’ scheme

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) of Pakistan issued a detailed five-page verdict in the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) “voluntary return” suo motu case, directing the secretary (Establishment) and provincial chief secretaries to initiate proceedings against the accused beneficiaries of NAB’s voluntary return scheme. The SC also stated that the NAB chairman, or any other officer authorised by him on his behalf, was restrained from accepting any offer of voluntary return. According to a list provided by NAB, there are 1,584 officials who benefited from the “voluntary return” plan. This includes 165 federal and 1,419 provincial officials. The most benefit was provided to officials from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where 900 officials returned embezzled funds under ‘voluntary return’. On Monday, the Supreme Court took away powers of voluntary return from the NAB chairman during hearing of the suo motu case. Justice Ameer Hani said that these powers promoted a culture of corruption in NAB. Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali maintained that NAB was exercising powers that even the court was not entitled to. “A person can visit the NAB office, settle the matter over a cup of coffee, and save his job,” the CJ said. Justice Azmat Saeed Sheikh said that NAB was like a person standing in a busy marketplace screaming, “Do corruption and then return it voluntarily.” The “voluntary return and plea bargain” section in NAB allows the bureau to discharge an individual from “all his liability” in the matter by paying back the embezzled amount to the public kitty and the case is then closed with immediate effect.