ISLAMABAD, Sep 21 (TNS): The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) recovered more than Rs36 billion through plea bargain in the last five years, Law Minister Zahid Hamid informed the National Assembly on Thursday.
According to a document submitted to the House, NAB processed 582 plea bargain cases from January 2013 to March 2017.
The law minister further apprised the House that the accountability watchdog registered 3,035 cases of corruption during the last five years. “In 2016, the highest 914 cases were registered,” he added.
Moreover, the highest number of graft cases was registered in Punjab and Islamabad Capital Territory during the five-year period.
“In Punjab and federalcapital, 1340 cases were registered, in Sindh 841 cases and in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 513 cases of corruption were registered,” the minister said.
Last year, the Supreme Court of Pakistan had observed that voluntary return of the embezzled money by public servants under the provisions of the National Accountability Bureau Ordinance was increasing corruption and such officials should not be allowed to remain in service.
Minister of State for Power Abid Sher Ali during question hour told the House that over seven thousand seven hundred and fifty megawatt (7750 MW) of power has been added to the national grid system during the last four years.
He said the electricity generation capacity is continuously increasing and the duration of load shedding has been reduced from 18 hours in 2013 to about two hours.
He said additional megawatts of power will be added to the national grid by November and December which will help rid the country of power outages.
Abid Sher Ali said the process of system upgradation is also underway to reduce the line losses.
The Minister of State told the House that the first turbine of Neelum Jhelum Hydel Project will be commissioned in March next year while the entire project will stand complete by July next year.
Minister of State for Petroleum Jam Kamal told the House that eight new oil and gas discoveries have so far been made in the country this year.
Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Sheikh Aftab Ahmed told the House that fourteen thousand additional polling stations will be established for the 2018 general elections to facilitate the voters. He said the government also plans to set up separate polling stations for men and women.
Responding to a point of order in the National Assembly, Minister for States and Frontier Regions Abdul Qadir Baloch said the Prime Minster will make a policy statement on FATA reforms on his return from the United States.
The federal minister said that FATA Reforms Package comprising twenty five points has been prepared after consultation with the relevant stakeholders.
