The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) will file references against Balochistan’s former finance secretary Mushtaq Raisani and a contractor Sohail Majeed Shah despite the approval of a plea bargain deal with the accused in a mega corruption scandal.
These references have been prepared and will be filed in an accountability court within two weeks.
The anti-graft watchdog on Wednesday 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 had recovered sensitive documents and Rs603 million in cash in a raid at his residence.
According to NAB authorities, Raisani and Shah — the front-man 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 Chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry in the chair.
“Plea bargain was the only speediest option to get back the embezzled money from the accused which belong to people of Balochistan,” NAB Balochistan Director General Major (retd) Tariq Mehmood Malik said, adding that reference would also be filed against the CM’s former adviser on finance.
He said through plea bargain, NAB has been able to recover approximately Rs3 billion against Rs2.24 billion embezzled in Balochistan mega corruption scam. “NAB has made a history by recovering Rs3 billion. The recovered amount will be handed over to the Balochistan government enabling it to spend it on the welfare of the people of Balochistan,” he said.
