Tonight with Moeed Pirzada: NAB’s Plea bargaining is the fastest route for recovering ill-gotten wealth

DG NAB Zahir Shah Nab has approved a plea bargain request worth Rs. 2bn submitted by a former finance secretary of Balochistan, Mushtaq Ahmed Raisani, and Sohail Majeed Shah, a contractor and frontman of Khalid Lango, a former adviser to the chief minister. NAB’s director general for operations, Zahir Shah defended this move by the accountability bureau as he joined Dr Moeed Pirzada at “Tonight with Moeed Pirzada” program. The DG said that the move was as per the books and legal on part of the Nab. Article 25 of the NAB ordinance empowers the chairman to accept plea bargains. This ensures quick recovery of the ill gotten assets and money. He asserted that as our criminal justice system is weak and cases are pending and at the end some of the culprits are acquitted. Responding to a question on the Supreme court reservations regarding the power of the Chairman NAB routinely releases people after recovering paltry amounts from them ,the NAB official said that under the option the accused had to face all the legal charges except imprisonment.