Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Monday restrained the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) chairman from exercising the authority under Section 25(a) of National Accountability Ordinance, 1999, wherein the authority allows the accused to enter into voluntary return of funds (plea bargain).

The top court also directed the NAB to furnish details of public servants – both in federal and provincial government departments – who had opted for a plea bargain during the last decade, along with the volume of their corruption.

A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali, resumed the hearing of a suo motu case over Section 25 of the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999, which allows the accused to voluntarily return the embezzled amount to avoid legal action against them.

During the course of the hearing, NAB Prosecutor General Waqas Kabir Dar produced a report, according to which a total amount of Rs 2,021.993 million – recovered under the voluntary return from civil servants currently serving in different parts of the country – had been deposited in the government coffers.

According to the report, as many as 33 public servants serving in Lahore entered into plea bargains and deposited Rs 55.275 million; six public servants from Multan deposited Rs 8.52 million; 74 public servants from Rawalpindi deposited Rs 156.077 million; 374 public servants from Karachi deposited Rs 743.070 million; and 62 public servants from Balochistan deposited Rs 171.442 million under the voluntary return.

It also stated that 92 public servants from Sukkur deposited an amount of Rs 241.629 million and 943 public servants from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) deposited Rs 645.980 million under the plea bargain.

The bureau said that a total of 1,584 public servants opted for the voluntary return of embezzled funds, of which 165 were employees of the federation, while 1,419 were of provinces.

Justice Ameer Muslim Hani, another member of the bench, observed that parliamentarians and high-profile people usually entered into plea bargains. He further observed that the NAB – after recovering money under the head of plea bargains – allowed the corrupt to hold their office yet again.

He said that those entered into plea bargains should immediately be proceeded against, and barred from holding public offices.

The prosecutor also informed the court that the authority had standard operating procedures (SOPs) wherein the accused returns 34 percent of the total looted money, after which it was up to their department concerned whether to allow the defaulter to continue working.

However, Justice Hani further observed that the rule, Section 25(a), was meant to multiply corruption. The court said that the NAB officials received 20 percent incentive/reward in case of a plea bargain, adding that the government itself was involved in drafting such laws.

Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali observed that the NAB acquitted the accused, asking them to return the money in instalments, which was meant to allow corrupt persons to sit in their offices and return the money by doing more corruption.

He further observed that the NAB was an important institution and both the matters of contraventions in appointments and voluntary returns under Section 25 were sensitive in nature, adding that such laws ultimately turn out to be a laughing stock for other countries.

Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed observed that the NAB complains of corruption, and later requests the accused to enter into a plea bargain. He further observed that there was no voluntary return or plea bargain in the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), but the NAB offered such facilities to the corrupt elements.

Giving example of the facilities being given to the accused, the chief justice observed that the accused commits corruption of Rs 20 million and gets acquitted after returning Rs 0.2 million.

Addressing the attorney general of Pakistan and other law officers of the NAB, he said, “Learn something from the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO)”.