Public servants seeking plea bargain to be barred for life: Ishaq Dar

Finance minister says the ordinance will come into force from Saturday midnight

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on Saturday announced to introduce an ordinance which will impose lifetime ban on public servants involved in corruption.

"The ordinance will impose a lifetime ban on public representatives involved in corruption if they opt for plea bargain under the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) ordinance," Dar said while addressing a press conference in Islamabad on Saturday.

"The ordinance will come into force from Saturday midnight and will be implementable without delay," the finance minister added.

Dar said that the ordinance also proposes that plea bargain would be subject to approval by the court.

The government, Dar added, decided to immediately introduce the ordinance as the introduction of a bill in this regard could delay the matter.



"The Supreme Court had earlier sought government’s stance on plea bargain," Dar said adding, "therefore government decided to introduce harsher punitive measures against those involved."

Earlier, the top anti-graft watchdog accepted Balochistan's finance secretary Mushtaq Raisani and his aide's plea bargain applications after they offered to return Rs2 billion to the national exchequer.

Raisani was taken into custody on May 6, 2016 after a NAB team recovered sensitive documents and Rs603m in cash in a raid at his residence. On May 9, NAB arrested government official Sohail Majeed for allegedly facilitating Raisani’s crimes.