LAHORE: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Thursday told an accountability court that the outgoing chairman of the bureau approved a plea bargain of Rs16 billion with the owner of the Eden Housing Scheme.
Hundreds of affectees gathered outside the court and rejected the plea bargain as unfair and a travesty of their struggle of more than a decade.
During the course of previous hearing, Special Prosecutor Hafiz Asadullah Awan had told the court that the then NAB chairman, retired Justice Javed Iqbal, had a meeting with those affected by the scam. He said the affectees told the chairman that the amount of the plea bargain proposed by the accused was not enough to compensate their losses.
The prosecutor had contended that the NAB chairman accepted the request of the affectees and directed the accused to finalise a plea bargain of Rs25bn.
However, on Thursday, the prosecutor told the court that the chairman approved the plea bargain of Rs16bn with Anjum Amjad, the widow of Dr Amjad. He said the accused would pay the amount during three years and would not leave country till the complete payment to the affectees.
Advocate Zubair Khalid, on behalf of the affectees, argued that amount of the plea bargain approved by the NAB was ridiculous. He said the cost of the housing project was Rs16bn when it was launched in 2009. He said the NAB filed its reference in 2018 and evaluated the cost of the project at Rs27bn. The counsel said the plea bargain should have been approved up to Rs75bn in accordance with the market price of the day. He said the 11,888 affectees would not accept the plea bargain.
Presiding Judge Sheikh Sajjad Ahmad observed that the affectees could challenge the plea bargain decision in high court. The judge observed that the reference would remain pending till the payment to the affectees and would reopen in case of default by the accused.
The late Dr Muhammad Amjad, his sons Murtaza, who is son-in-law of former chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, and Mustafa, and wife Anjum were nominated as accused in the reference. Dr Amjad passed away in August 2021 weeks after returning to the country from Canada.
Published in Dawn, June 3rd, 2022