Corruption allegations: Court accepts revenue officer’s plea bargain

PESHAWAR:

An accountability court on Monday accepted the plea bargain application of revenue officer Saeed Khan after he agreed to deposit Rs22.38 million following a nod of approval from the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) chairman.

The application was accepted by Judge Tariq Yousafzai who on May 3 had rejected the same application despite it having been approved by the NAB chairman. The accused was later sent to Central Prison Peshawar but he managed to get bail from the Peshawar High Court last Thursday.

The accused was arrested on April 3 on charges of possessing assets disproportionate to his known sources of income. On April 23, he was produced before Accountability Judge Muhammad Ibrahim Khan where he was informed that chairman NAB has accepted the plea bargain application and thus needs the approval of the court. However, the court was not satisfied and instead sent the accused to jail.

The accused accumulated large amounts of assets during his tenure as a gardawar in the revenue department and allegedly had the support of influential people in the government.

The accused is suspected to be involved in the transfer of many officials and NAB has declared him a ‘king of corruption’. He was recruited in the revenue department around two decades ago and served as a patwari in key areas of the city and was promoted as a gardawar in 2012.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 20^th, 2014.