The National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Pakistan's anti-corruption watchdog, said on Monday that its asset recovery drive has taken back prime Pakistan Railways land measuring 235,622 kanals, or 29,453 acres, valued at Rs6.78 trillion. The bureau put its total state asset recovery for the third quarter of 2026 at Rs9.18 trillion. NAB Chairman Lt Gen (retd) Nazir Ahmed Butt presented the figures at a press briefing at the bureau's headquarters in Islamabad.
Breakdown of the recoveries
Besides the railway land, the bureau said 866,299 acres of provincial land, including forest, revenue and highway land, worth Rs2.4 trillion had also been recovered. By region, NAB Sukkur reported Pakistan Railways land worth Rs5.06 trillion near prime urban areas of Karachi Division, while NAB Balochistan recovered 811,967 acres of forest land valued at Rs1.71 trillion. NAB Multan and NAB Lahore also reported recoveries of provincial and railway land in their areas.
The bureau described the third-quarter total as an increase of 169 per cent over the Rs5.41 trillion recovered in the first two quarters of the year. By the figures given, Rs9.18 trillion is about 1.7 times Rs5.41 trillion, which is a rise of roughly 70 per cent, so the 169 per cent figure appears to describe the new total as a share of the old one. The bureau also said it paid Rs908.42 million to 4,280 affectees through their bank accounts in the quarter, and recovered Rs2.22 billion through plea bargains in the Bahria Town and Kohistan cases.
Power sector and railway reactions
NAB said it wants to bring more transparency to the power sector, which it described as ailing, through scrutiny and audit of captive power plants, meaning plants that generate electricity for a single user. The bureau also plans to identify actual electricity rates and recover money where overcharging has taken place. The chairman said, "I promise that we will definitely take up the IPPs and power sector," referring to independent power producers, which are private companies that sell electricity to the state. He added that results would begin to show at the start of next year.
On the railway land, the chairman said the recovered value reflects only the land, and the assets built on it carry their own worth. He said the proposed ML-1 (Main Line 1) corridor, estimated to cost Rs1.5 trillion, could be built from the country's own resources. Pakistan Railways Secretary Syed Mazhar Ali Shah said managing land records was beyond his department's capacity, and that the department had wanted to commercialise its land but found much of it encroached upon or not titled in the railways' name.
Timeline: what has happened so far
- March 2023 to September 2026: NAB says it has recovered Rs26.1 trillion in total.
- First two quarters of 2026: state asset recoveries of Rs5.41 trillion, according to the bureau.
- First nine months of 2026: aggregate recoveries of Rs14.6 trillion.
- Third quarter of 2026: state assets worth Rs9.18 trillion recovered, including Rs6.78 trillion of Pakistan Railways land.
- Monday briefing: NAB presented the quarterly figures and outlined its power sector and forensic audit plans.
Aasan alfaaz mein
NAB ne kaha hai ke is saal ki teesri sehmahi mein us ne sarkari zameen aur assets 9.18 trillion rupay ke wapas liye hain, jin mein Pakistan Railways ki zameen 6.78 trillion rupay ki hai. Bijli ke sector mein bhi captive power plants aur IPPs ki jaanch aur audit shuru ho chuki hai, aur overcharging pakri jaye to paise wapas liye jayenge. Natayij agle saal ke shuru mein nazar aane ki umeed hai. Abhi aam sharyon ke bijli ke bills ya kirayon mein kisi tabdeeli ka elaan nahi hua.
