Late PPP stalwart’s son set free after plea bargain

HYDERABAD:

The son of late Pakistan Peoples Party stalwart Makhdoom Amin Fahim filed a plea bargain at an accountability court in Hyderabad to secure his release in a corruption reference. The case pertained to embezzlement of public funds worth over Rs700 million.

Following the plea bargain, the court freed on Wednesday Makhdoom Jaliluz Zaman, who was a former taluka nazim in Matiari district.

Zaman agreed to submit Rs15 million in court, which he accepted he had received from former Hyderabad additional district accounts officer Mushtaque Ahmed Shaikh - the prime accused in the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) reference.

Before the plea bargain's submission in court, the NAB Karachi DG approved it.

According to investigation officer Adnan Hafeez Abbasi, Zaman received Rs15 million from Shaikh in three instalments over four years. He received Rs6 million in cash at his own bank account on August 12, 2011, while Rs1.5 million was deposited at his wife's bank account on April 14, 2015. Shaikh also made a payment of Rs7.5 million on Zaman’s behalf to purchase an apartment in Karachi, in the name of Zaman’s brother-in-law.

"Zaman has submitted an application for returning the ill-gotten amount of Rs15 million given to him by the accused Shaikh," stated the court order. "This plea bargain will make the loss good and strengthen the case, in the form of evidence, against the main accused."

The court convicted Zaman under Section 25(b) read with Section 15 of the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999, while also disqualifying him from holding public office or being assigned any responsibility by the federal or provincial governments for 10 years. He will further be unable to avail financing facilities from public sector banks for the same duration.

The court ordered NAB to release Zaman immediately if he was not required in any other case.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 8^th, 2020.