PHC notice to NAB on extra charges in plea bargain

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Monday issued a notice to National Accountability Bureau (NAB) chairman and directed him to submit a reply in a writ petition that had challenged the NAB’s extra commission in the case after plea bargain.
A division bench comprising Justice Lal Jan Khattak and Justice Syed Afsar Shah issued the notice in a writ petition filed by Raza Ali, a close relative of the former chief minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti.
He had filed the petition against the NAB chairman for demanding 15 percent extra commission in the case. The petitioner’s lawyer Umar Farooq Adam submitted before the bench that his client had struck a plea bargain with the National Accountability Bureau chairman and paid amount to the NAB as plea bargain.
He submitted that the now the NAB was also demanding 15 percent extra commission from Raza Ali, who had a plea bargain in a multi-billion weapons scam in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police department.
The lawyers contended that the extra commission was illegal and against the law.Following the plea bargain, Raza Ali had got his bail from the PHC on January 29 after furnishing bail bonds worth Rs50 million.
Raza Ali, brother-in-law of Ameer Ghazan Hoti, was arrested by the National Accountability Bureau in the weapons procurement scam of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police Department after the judicial statement of Arshad Majeed, a private contractor and principal accused, who turned approver in the scam and named him for providing Rs195 million to him for onward payment to Ghazan Hoti, brother of the former chief minister.