"More than 700 corruption references (cases) are in the courts, as a result of the apex Court's December 16 ruling against the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO)," he added. "Presently, there are 530 cases at the stage of inquiry with the Bureau, whereas it has completed investigation in 350 cases and proceeded against the accused," the official said.
He said, "NAB is sending weekly progress reports to the Supreme Court about the corruption cases being heard by Accountability Courts." He said that Nab would have been more active and efficient had its annual budget not been reduced from Rs 800 to Rs 590 million. "There are only 21 Accountability Courts, out of which four are dysfunctional due to non-availability of judges," he added.
Nab has requested the government to appoint more judges and set up additional Accountability Courts for expeditious proceeding of the cases, he added. The official said that the shortage of special prosecutors was also affecting the performance of the Bureau. "Chairman Nab is empowered to appoint prosecutors, but he would do so only after getting sufficient funds from the government," he added. The official said that Nab had almost been dormant since October 2007, when references and cases were withdrawn under the NRO.
He said the fact is that the NAB, as an institution, had been in the process of being wrapped up since it lost its utility after the withdrawal of criminal and civil cases from the courts under the garb of political reconciliation, therefore no one was ready to handle the situation arising out of the historic Supreme Court ruling of December, 16, 2009.