PHOTO: NATIONAL ACCOUNTABILITY BUREAU
QUETTA: An accountability court on Friday asked the National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) investigation officer and prosecutor to submit records regarding former finance secretary Mushtaq Raisani’s plea bargain agreement.
On Dec 23, NAB’s office in Balochistan announced it intended to file references against Raisani and a contractor Sohail Majeed Shah despite approval of a plea bargain deal with the accused in a mega corruption case.
Earlier, the top anti-graft watchdog accepted the accused’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.
According to NAB authorities, Raisani and Shah – the front-men of Balochistan former chief minister’s adviser on finance Khalid Langove – had submitted plea bargain applications which were approved during NAB’s executive board meeting with NAB Chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry in the chair.
The accountability court on Friday ordered the officer to submit all records by next Monday. NAB officials had failed to submit the plea bargain deal records on Friday.
Defending the plea bargain, NAB Chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry said last week that both Raisani and Shah had agreed to become crown witnesses against Khalid Langove.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 31st, 2016.
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