NAB gets no share from plea bargain deals: Chaudhry

NAB chairman says a four-member team examines cases

LAHORE: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) is bound to exercise the plea bargain if a convict files an application, its chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry said on Monday.

The NAB chairman was speaking during a meeting with senior editors and reporters organised by the Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors (CPNE) at a local hotel in Lahore.

Almost every country has a plea bargain law, which exists in Pakistan as well, according to the NAB chairman. Under the same law, he said, NAB has recovered Rs285 billion over the last 16 years.

The bureau has also handed over a handsome amount to the victims of various scams, such as the ones run by ‘Double’ Shah, Cooperatives scams and many housing scams under the law.

He insisted that plea bargain agreements were not given with a ‘free hand’. Chaudhry added that if a government official decides to take a plea bargain then he gets dismissed from his post, while an elected member of a public office becomes ineligible to contest elections for 10 years, and a businessman has to lose the rights to the facility he misused.

Chaudhry said NAB advertises in newspapers to seek claims by the victims of any scam. “Then it (NAB) adds interest (as per State Bank policy) and finally prepares a plea bargain on the total amount claimed by the victims.”

He said that no case is investigated by a single officer: in fact, a four-member Combined Investigation Team (CIT) of NAB examines the case. He said on the findings of the CIT NAB proceeds with further action against the accused.

"Most of the people have a perception that NAB gets a share through plea bargain deals which is completely wrong,” he said. He clarified that the corruption watchdog deposits the total amount into the national treasury or distributes among the victims.

To a question about Balochistan Finance Department corruption case, Qamar said that it was not Rs40 billion but only 2.2 billion. The provincial government also lauded NAB’s performance and the total amount recovered through plea bargaining will be given to the provincial government.

He made an appeal to the CPNE president to form an investigation committee to check as to who made up this wrong figure while reporting the case.

Chaudhry said that NAB was taking action against all the political parties without any discrimination. He added that the NAB chairman has the authority of taking suo motu actions, however, in order to protect the honour of any citizen NAB only takes action after receiving credible proof.

To another question, he said NAB suffered during the previous government's tenure as four chairmen were changed during its five years. However, he assured that the situation improved under the present government and the department was working with commitment.

The meeting was also attended by the CPNE President Zia Shahid, DG NAB Lahore Syed Burhan Ali, senior journalists Mujeebur Rehman Shami, Arif Nizami, Salman Ghani, Zulfiqar Rahat, Adeeb Jawdani, Zulfiqar Rahat, Amjad Iqbal and others.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 3^rd, 2017.