NAB says court approves plea bargain

ISLAMABAD: Rejecting allegations, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Sunday said plea bargain was not approved by it but the accountability court on the request of accused.

“The NAB rejects all such media reports and will issue legal notices to all such persons who levelled baseless allegations against it. They will have to prove their claims within 14 days otherwise legal proceedings will be initiated against them as per law,” the spokesman said in a statement. The spokesman said no person had died in their custody.

The spokesman said the accused not only pleaded guilty before the accountability court, but also signed his statement in front of the court independently and submitted the first tranche of the looted money.

The statement said plea bargain was deemed conviction which fell in the domain of Article 25-b of NAB Ordinance 1999. “The accused after seeing the proof and solid evidence collected by the NAB voluntarily opt for plea bargain, as he has no other way out for him. The NAB deposits all the looted amount recovered from plea bargain in the national exchequer considering it as its national duty. Moreover, plea bargain is also part of various other countries of the world like the US, the UK, Australia and India,” said the spokesman.

The statement said after acceptance of the plea bargain, the accused was not eligible to contest election for 10 years.

“A person who opts for plea bargain is also not eligible to get loan from a scheduled bank and his company is black-listed. If a person is government servant, he is terminated after acceptance of plea bargain from the accountability court,” said the statement.

It said the NAB was a human-friendly and law-abiding organization adding that the NAB’s remarkable efforts for eradication of corruption had been appreciated by reputed national and international organisations like Transparency International Pakistan, World Economic Forum, PILDAT and Mishal Pakistan.