Plea bargains

The editorial ‘Amending NAB’ (January 17, 2020) has touched on the very sensitive issue of amending the NAB laws by government as per the directions of the Supreme Court. The major objection concerns the law governing plea bargaining by NAB. NAB believes in accountability for all and that no one is above law. NAB has recovered over Rs71 billion in the last 20 months and the recovery of billions more is in progress. Former NAB chairman, Fasih Bokhari, had remarked that Pakistan wastes a whopping five to seven billion rupees daily as a result of inefficiency, corruption and tax shortcomings. This figure may be much higher by now due to devaluation of the rupee. Plea bargaining has proved to be the most effective tool in recovering the looted money of the poor people of Pakistan. However, every law is subject to review in the best interests of the state.

If we start giving concessions to the corrupt and amend the laws to their convenience all efforts to recover looted money shall be non-productive. It would be more appropriate to close down NAB instead of clipping their wings but those who would do so should keep in mind the money recovered through plea bargaining.

Lt Col (r) Mukhtar Ahmed Butt

Karachi