Rs700m allocated for NAB
By Syed Irfan Raza
ISLAMABAD: The government has allocated Rs700 million for the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for the new fiscal year 2010-11, despite a broad agreement between the ruling PPP and opposition PML-N to wrap up the bureau which they say is one of the instruments of political victimisation used by former President Gen Pervez Musharraf.
The allocation is the highest ever made for the bureau and 36.3 per cent more than last year’s Rs513.2 million.
The government had promised an allocation of Rs693 million last year but because of the move to wind it up, it was reduced Rs513.2 million.
“We have received the amount we sought to run the bureau,” a senior NAB official told Dawn.
Of the new allocation, Rs398 million has been earmarked for expenses relating to employees. Last year this amount was Rs265 million. An amount of Rs266 million has been earmarked for operating expenses of the bureau, against last year’s allocation of Rs210 million.
The enhanced funding indicates that its proposed replacement with a new National Accountability Commission may be delayed. NAB was given a new lease of life by a Supreme Court judgment which ordered reopening of all closed NRO cases against politicians and bureaucrats.
Judicial sources said NAB had become an important organ of the state which was assisting the Supreme Court in implementation of its judgment about cases against politicians and bureaucrats, including President Asif Ali Zadrai and some ministers.
Source: Dawn
Date:6/8/2010
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