NAB weighs new legal strategy to keep high-value corruption cases alive

According to officials, the proposal is under internal review and is expected to be presented before NAB’s Executive Board Meeting for policy approval.

Islamabad: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) is considering a new legal approach aimed at preventing major corruption cases from being dismissed after rising inflation increased the agency’s financial jurisdiction threshold.

According to officials, the proposal is under internal review and is expected to be presented before NAB’s Executive Board Meeting for policy approval. The plan focuses on re-evaluating the current value of alleged financial losses in corruption cases by applying the same inflation formula used to revise NAB’s jurisdiction.

Under amendments to the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999, the bureau’s minimum financial jurisdiction of Rs500 million was linked to the inflation index published by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, effective from July 1, 2022. Due to cumulative inflation, officials estimate that the threshold has now risen to more than Rs800 million.

The revised limit has raised concerns that several ongoing inquiries, investigations, and corruption references involving amounts below the new threshold could fall outside NAB’s jurisdiction and potentially be closed.

To address this issue, NAB is exploring whether the alleged financial losses suffered by individuals, public institutions, and the national exchequer should also be adjusted for inflation. Under the proposed interpretation, if the inflation-adjusted value of the alleged loss exceeds the revised jurisdictional limit, the case would remain eligible for investigation and prosecution.a

Officials argue that inflation should not only benefit the accused by raising the jurisdiction threshold but should also reflect the reduced purchasing power of the money allegedly lost through corruption.

If approved by the Executive Board and adopted as official policy, the proposal could allow NAB to continue pursuing a significant number of high-profile corruption cases without requiring fresh legislative amendments. However, the final legality of applying inflation adjustments to alleged financial losses will ultimately be determined by the courts.

Meanwhile, NAB continues to investigate several major corruption and money laundering cases across the country. Among the most significant is the alleged Rs40 billion Upper Kohistan corruption scandal, in which the bureau has already recovered billions of rupees and arrested multiple suspects.

The anti-graft watchdog is also pursuing an investigation into alleged large-scale irregularities in the Lyari Expressway Resettlement Project, involving illegal land allotments and forged documents. Alongside these cases, NAB is intensifying efforts to recover public assets, investigate financial misconduct in development projects, and expand the use of artificial intelligence to strengthen financial crime investigations.