Law Minister Moula Bakhsh Chandio told the Senate that investigations had been closed after due process, examination on merit and deliberations in the regional NAB executive boards and the bureau’s board meetings presided over by the chairman. – File Photo

ISLAMABAD: The Senate was informed on Tuesday that 10 probes involving corruption of hundreds of millions of rupees were closed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) during the five-month tenure of Justice (retd) Deedar Hussain Shah as chairman.

During the question hour, Law Minister Moula Bakhsh Chandio said that none of the pending cases had been dropped between Oct 8, 2010, and March 10 this year but 10 ongoing investigations had been closed.

He said the investigations had been closed after due process, examination on merit and deliberations in the regional NAB executive boards and the bureau’s board meetings presided over by the chairman.

The minister said that if the investigation officers failed to collect prosecutable evidence, the decision for closure of a case was recommended to the accountability court concerned. He said 618 inquiries were under way and more than 100 of them had been in the same stage for over five years. In 2009 150 probes were initiated as compared to 83 in the preceding year. Another 184 inquiries were initiated last year and 86 this year.

The house witnessed uproar when former information minister Senator Tariq Azim asked in what capacity a former law minister had been distributing money among various bars.

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