NAB to Re-Arrest People Who Used ‘Plea Bargain’ to Avoid Prosecution

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has announced to arrest the individuals who entered into plea bargain after being found guilty of corruption.

Director General NAB Lahore, Shahzad Saleem, told that the bureau will arrest individuals whose misappropriated money exceeds the amount returned under the plea bargain.

He added that people engaged in corruption and deceit will not be allowed to get away with it just by entering into a plea bargain.

The NAB official further said that if NAB finds evidence of embezzled amount exceeding the bargain amount, the accused can be rearrested. The bureau has already arrested a person for the same reason.


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Notably, Section 25 of the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO) enables the NAB Chairman, with the approval of an accountability court, to order the release of an accused guilty of corruption after he/she enters into a plea bargain.

The plea bargain is an agreement to the voluntary return of the money illegally earned by a person. It is pertinent to note here that a case on the voluntary return rules of NAB is under consideration of the Supreme Court.

The apex court has directed to amend the said rules, observing the practice of plea bargain exists only in Pakistan. In other countries, the accused requests relaxation in his sentence in turn for a voluntary return, but in Pakistan, NAB itself writes a letter to offer the voluntary return.



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