Director General’s good performance during his earlier tenure a reason behind his re-posting at Lahore office

LAHORE   -  National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Justice Javed Iqbal on Friday transferred and posted Director General Shahzad Saleem as DG NAB Lahore.

He was directed to assume office with immediate effect and a notification from NAB HQs has also been issued in this regard. Shahzad Saleem’s remarkable performance during his earlier tenure as DG NAB Lahore during April 2017 to Dec 2021 is the reason for his transfer to such an important region of NAB.

Earlier in December 2021, Jameel Ahmed had replaced him as DG NAB Lahore. Jameel Ahmed has been posted as DG A&P, NAB HQs.

The performance report of NAB Lahore during April 2017 - Dec 2021 reflects that NAB Lahore held Plea Bargain (PB) worth Rs14.65 billion under his four-year command which demonstrated 181 percent annual increase in earlier tenure of NAB Lahore since its inception which shows NAB-Lahore managed Rs17.71 billion between 2000-2016. It further stated that NAB Lahore recovered Rs3.64 billion during 2021.

Talking about Indirect recoveries, under the command of Shahzad Saleem, NAB Lahore recovered Rs80.86 billion with an annual increase of 1087 percent, whereas, the regional bureau could recover Rs23.17 billion between 2000-2016 (16 yrs). In this way, NAB Lahore recovered Rs 20.18 billion during last year of 2021.

Shahzad Saleem also enjoys a particular repute in NAB regarding his enforcement activities. During his first four-year tenure in NAB Lahore as DG, he managed to arrest a total of 708 accused in different corruption scandals which reflected an annual increase of 125 percent. Comparative to that, NAB-Lahore region had arrested 1,073 accused between last 16 years. Moreover, during the year 2021, he handed down 42 accused without any pressure. NAB Lahore’s Prosecution Wing filed corruption references involving an estimated amount of Rs 84.53 billion with an annual increase of 441 percent. During last 16 years, the same region had filed references involving amount of Rs53.09 billion. Likewise, NAB Lahore had filed references amounting to 6.14 billion during 2021.

The conviction ratio remained 74 percent during 2021, 78 percent in 2020, 70 percent during 2019, 83 percent in 2018 and 72 percent in 2017.