Don’t find faults with plea bargain, says NAB

Says Rs40 bn corruption news just propaganda

ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau Thursday defended its decision of plea bargain of over Rs2 billion with former Finance Secretary of Balochistan Mushtaq Raisani and others saying that NAB chairman and courts gave final approval for it.

“Through plea bargain, Rs3.25 billion will be returned to the national exchequer and action will be taken against the culprits,” said NAB Director General (Operations) Zahir Shah while addressing a press conference here.

Shah said under plea bargain, the accused has to face all legal implications except imprisonment. He said news about Rs40 billion corruption was just propaganda and plea bargain should not be considered wrong. He said as per law the recovered amount was transferred to the national exchequer after plea bargain."NAB will neither keep a penny from this amount," he replied to a question.

He said both the accused had confessed to their crimes and were willing to return the amount they got through corruption. He said NAB had accepted plea bargain application of Mushtaq Raisani for depositing Rs2.25 billion and that of Sohail Majeed for Rs960 million.

Giving break-up, he said Raisani had surrendered Rs653.2 million in cash and 3.3 kilogram gold worth Rs13.5 million and the cash and the gold were recovered during the NAB's raid at his residence.

He said Raisani had also offered two properties worth Rs60 million in Quetta and Rs70 million in Karachi's DHA. “These are in addition to the 11 properties already seized by the NAB from Raisani and Majeed," Shah said.

Two commercial plazas, three houses of minimum 500 sq yards each and six valuable residential plots in DHA will be sold for Rs1.5 billion to Rs2 billion, expectedly, he added.

He said Raisani had also surrendered two luxury cars, including a Mercedes Benz and a Toyota Grande, worth approximately Rs8 million. He said any amount recovered by the NAB was handed over to provincial governments via their chief secretaries. “Hence, the total assets surrendered by Raisani are worth Rs800 million in addition to his 11 properties valued at Rs1.25 billion,” he added.

Talking about the alleged corruption of Sohail Majeed Shah, contractor and front man of Khalid Lango, ex-adviser to Chief Minister Balochistan, the NAB official said the accused had agreed to return all the money that he passed on to others. “Sohail Majeed Shah has surrendered Rs960 million which was routed through his accounts and he also gave some valuable houses," he added.

He said of the total allocation of Rs6 billion for local government funds, Rs3 billion was released. "A huge amount of Rs 3 billion wad released for local government development but the lion's share was embezzled by Raisani and his cronies," Shah said.

He said bank accounts of both the accused have been frozen while an investigation against Lango, ex-adviser to the Balochistan chief minister, was in final stages and his case would be referred to a court soon.

He said the NAB had emerged victorious in 76% of court cases, which was the highest conviction rate in the world in terms of white collar crimes. “From 2012 to 2016, the NAB recovered Rs6 billion through PB and Rs13 billion through Voluntary Return (VR). The total amount recovered during the period was Rs45.37 billion, which also included recovery in bank loan cases,” he added.

He said since its inception, the Bureau had recovered Rs 284 billion while 917 cases were settled under plea bargain deals and around 2900 cases under VR.

The DG Operations said NAB had already recovered Rs385 million from the owners of pharmaceutical companies under a plea bargain deal in a drug pricing scandal while the total recovery in the particular case would be Rs1.11 billion. “Some accused, who were still in jail, had also requested for plea bargain and the government officials involved in the scam were also in jail as their case was under trial,” he added.

He said Rs1.11 billion was said to be a record which was made possible after hectic efforts. Giving details of the scam, he said officials of Ministry of National Regulations and Health Services and the owners of some pharmaceutical firms made an illegal increase in drug prices and even in some cases around 200 percent, causing loss to the general public.

As per the investigation held under the supervision of DG NAB Rawalpindi, the accused were involved in an illegal increase of prices of drugs through misuse of meetings of Drugs Pricing Committee (DPC) and its sub-committee.

During the investigation, it was revealed that the pharmaceutical companies had been given undue financial favour by DPC members by allowing an exorbitant increase in drugs prices.

He said the request of the accused persons for a plea bargain was considered by the competent authority after taking into consideration facts/circumstances of the case and keeping in view the total liability.

Replying to a question, he said the Bureau did not keep any penny from the recovered amount, however, it was provided around 8 to 10 percent budgetary support as a specialised organisation. “Budgetary support was also audited every year,” he added.

Shah said credit should be given to the NAB chairman and his team, which had ensured recovery of around Rs4.5 billion through PB in the two corruption cases, ultimately giving benefit to the national kitty.