ISLAMABAD: The accountability court of Islamabad has approved the request of Bahria Town’s director Zain Malik for over Rs9 billion plea bargain with the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), said the bureau’s Rawalpindi office director general Irfan Naeem Mangi on Wednesday.

“The plea bargain is more than Rs9 billion, which is one of the highest plea bargains in the history of NAB,” said a press release issued by the anti-graft watchdog.

Reviewing the performance of NAB Rawalpindi at a meeting on Wednesday, NAB Chairman Javed Iqbal lauded the work of the regional office under supervision of DG Mangi.

NAB Deputy Chairman Hussain Asghar, Prosecutor General for Accountability (PGA) Syed Asghar Haider, DG (operations) Zahir Shah and other senior officers also attended the meeting.

Mr Mangi informed the meeting that the accountability court had approved a plea bargain by accused Zain Malik of Rs9.05bn in six references filed by the Rawalpindi bureau office.

Disclosing details of the deal, Mr Mangi said Rs2.1bn was recovered in a case titled state versus Hussain Lawai and others, Rs1.563bn was received in a case against Khawaja Abdul Ghani Majeed, Rs2bn was recovered in a case against former director general of the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) Manzoor Qadir Kaka, Rs310 million was received under a deal in a case against Mushtaq Ahmd and Zain Malik, Rs1.7bn was recovered in a case against Zardari Group and Opal-225, a sum of Rs4.95bn was received in a case against Zain Malik and Mushtaq Ahmed.

The meeting was further informed that the accountability court also accepted Rs1.95bn plea bargain request of accused Mian Waseem alias Lucky Ali. However, the court convicted accused Matiur Rehman in the Modaraba case with 12 years of imprisonment and a fine of Rs170m while declaring accused Atiqur Rehman a proclaimed offender.

In a separate Modaraba scam, the court awarded a 10-year sentence to Ghulam Rasool Ayubi along with a fine of Rs3.7bn. Not only Ayubi had been found guilty but all charges against other co-accused namely Hussain Ahmad and M Khalid were also proved.

In another Modaraba case, the accountability court awarded 10-year imprisonment and Rs9bn fine to Fayazi Group of Industries CEO Mufti Ehsan-ul-Haq, while Rs1bn fine was imposed on nine co-accused in the reference filed by NAB Rawalpindi.

Mr Mangi said former SBCA DG Manzoor Kaka had illegally allotted 506 acres of Pakistan Steel land out of which the documents of 300 acres had been returned to the Sindh government.

Published in Dawn, October 29th, 2020