Court puts NAB on notice over non-approval of plea bargain

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Wednesday issued a notice to chairman and director general of National Accountability Bureau Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on a petition filed by a former special assistant to the then chief minister to seek approval of his plea bargain.

The writ petition had been filed by Syed Masoom Shah, a former special assistant to then chief minister from the Awami National Party, Ameer Haider Khan Hoti. He had sought approval of his plea bargain from accountability court. A two-member bench comprising Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel and Justice Irshad Qaiser issued the notice.

The bench asked the NAB KP to explain as to why the petitioner’s plea bargain application was not approved by the trial court and the matter was still pending. It fixed February 9 as the next hearing into the case.

The petitioner’s lawyer Barrister Waqar Khan submitted that the NAB chairman had approved the plea bargain application of the petitioner, but the trial court returned it to the NAB with certain objections.

He said the NAB again filed the application with the accountability court but it posed some questions to the petitioner and NAB. The lawyer requested the bench to direct the accountability court to approve the plea bargain as it had been accepted by the NAB chairman.

The NAB had submitted the application for approval before the accountability court after the bureau accepted the plea bargain of Syed Masoom Shah. He had offered to return Rs258 million of his ill-gotten wealth to win release after completion of the legal process.Syed Masoom Shah was arrested on August 11, 2015 on the charges of possessing assets disproportionate to his known sources of income.