ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s anti-corruption watchdog has returned more than Rs6 billion ($21.5 million) in recovered assets to the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province as part of an investigation into an alleged public funds fraud involving more than Rs37 billion ($133 million), authorities said on Tuesday.
The transfer marks the first major recovery in a case that investigators say exposed a vast network of suspicious financial transactions linked to public funds. Pakistan’s National Accountability Bureau (NAB) said additional assets worth billions of rupees remain under legal proceedings and could also be recovered.
The case, known in Pakistan as the “Kohistan scandal,” centers on allegations that funds earmarked for public development projects in the remote northwestern Kohistan region were diverted through a complex network of bank accounts and financial transactions. NAB said its investigation examined more than 1,500 bank accounts and uncovered illegal transfers worth billions of rupees.
“Corruption-derived assets are being returned to the public,” NAB Chairman Lt. Gen. (retired) Nazir Ahmed Butt said at a ceremony in Peshawar where the recovered assets were formally handed over to the provincial government.
According to NAB, the investigation uncovered a sophisticated financial network used to move and conceal funds and led to the freezing of assets ranging from bank deposits and property holdings to other investments allegedly linked to the fraud.
The bureau said it had frozen assets worth more than Rs27 billion ($97 million) and recovered assets exceeding Rs10 billion ($36 million) during the course of the investigation. More than Rs6 billion was transferred to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government in what NAB described as the first phase of the recovery process.
Pakistan has long struggled with corruption and weak governance, issues frequently cited by investors, businesses and international lenders as obstacles to economic growth. The country has undertaken a series of anti-corruption drives over the past two decades, though accountability efforts have often been accompanied by allegations of political selectivity, which authorities deny.
The latest recovery comes as Pakistan seeks to strengthen public finances and improve governance standards under a broader reform agenda backed by international financial institutions, including the International Monetary Fund.
“Public resources are a trust and betrayal of that trust will not be tolerated,” Butt said, describing the case as a major milestone in Pakistan’s accountability efforts and praised investigators who worked on the probe.
“Even complex financial crimes cannot escape the reach of the law,” he said.
The bureau said further recoveries are expected as additional assets move through legal proceedings.
