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SCP asks why small swindlers are incarcerated while those accused of stealing billions get scot-free due to NAB’s voluntary return scheme?

SANA MAHMOOD

ISLAMABAD (2 Jan., 2017): Part of the two-member Supreme Court of Pakistan (SCP) Bench Justice Shaikh Azmat Saeed has observed that NAB was facilitating corruption in the country.

Criticizing the NAB’s Voluntary Return and Plea Bargain Schemes Justice questioned why small swindlers were being incarcerated while those involved in corruption of billions were allowed to go scot free?

It is pertinent to mention here that a couple of months ago Supreme Court, taking Suo Motto notice, had stopped NAB allowing big swindlers get off unpunished taking shelter under the 1999 National Accountability Ordinance.

RELEVANT PIECES PUBLISHED EARLIER 

NAB Chief Qamar Zaman Ch. says Constitution allows Plea Bargain

NAB Chief Qamar Zaman Ch. says Constitution allows Plea Bargain

nab-nab-nabM. M. ALAM 

ISLAMABAD (28 Dec., 2016): Responding to country-wide uproar against plea bargain allowing former finance secretary Baluchistan Mushtaq Ahmed Raisani go off the hook paying a portion of the money he was accused of plundering, National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry said that the concept of plea bargain was present in laws of many countries.Further justifying NAB’s move he asserted that the bureau always remained within the limits of Constitution.  He defended plea bargaining by saying that it helped recover the looted money.Quoting National Accountability Ordinance’s Section 25(b) that allows every criminal place plea bargain request, he said that such application was reviewed in the light of the legal experts’ opinion.NAB chief further told that a government servant who requests a plea bargain is removed routinely. Any person who applies for such bargain gets disqualified for ten years and becomes illegible to apply for bank loans. 

raisaniRs, 730 million was seized by NAB from the house of former secretary finance Baluchistan  in Quetta.

NAB promoting corruption in Pakistan, alleges Imran Khan

NAB promoting corruption in Pakistan, alleges Imran Khan

imran-khan

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan has alleged that the institutions in Pakistan are corrupt like Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and they are promoting corruption’ in the country.

“I thought only Sharifs were corrupt, but now I believe that every institution in the country is corrupt,” Khan said while talking to the media here on Thursday.

PTI chief’s comments after National Accountability Bureau (NAB) accepted the bargain plea of former finance secretary of Balochistan Mushtaq Raisani against Rs 2bn.

“Mushtaq Raisani’s plea bargain with NAB to “clear” his Rs 40bn corruption by paying Rs 2bn shows NAB promoting corruption & making crime pay,” Khan said in a tweet.

Raisani, the then finance secretary of Balochistan, hit the headlines in May this year when NAB seized over Rs730 million hard cash from his house in Quetta hours after he was taken into custody.

Officials said the NAB has decided to accept plea bargain request of over Rs2 billion of Raisani and Khalid Lango, the ex-adviser to Chief Minister Balochistan.

Referring to former Army Chief of Pakistan General (Retd.) Pervez Musharraf’ claim that ex-army chief Gen Raheel Sharif helped him leave the country by keeping the government from pressuring the courts, Imran Khan said that the statement by former army chief deepens perception that powerful can violate laws with impunity.

 

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M M Alam

M. M. Alam is a Pakistan-based working journalist since 1981. Karachi University faculty gold medalist Alam began his career four decades ago by writing for Dawn, Pakistan’s highest circulating English daily. He has worked for region’s leading publications, global aviation periodicals including Rotors (of USA) and vetted New York Times as permanent employee of daily Express Tribune. Alam regularly covers international aviation and defense-related events including Salon Du Bourget (France), Farnborough (United Kingdom), Dubai (UAE). Alam has reported thousands of events and interviewed hundreds of people in Pakistan, UAE, EU, UK and USA. Being Francophone Alam also coordinates with a number of French publications.