PESHAWAR: Negotiations are in final stages between National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and Raza Ali, a distant relative of former chief minister Ameer Haider Hoti arrested on charges of receiving kickbacks in a high profile weapons procurement scam, over a plea bargain application in which the suspect has agreed to pay an amount of around Rs 200 million, official sources say.

An officialsaid that in principle NAB chairman agreed to accept the application but the delay was because of the mode of payment by Raza Ali, stated to be the brother-in-law of Hoti’s brother Ameer Ghazan Khan. Ghazan Khan is also charged in the case and is presently in judicial custody.

The source said that although the central character of the case, Arshad Majeed, a private contractor who turned approver, in his judicial statement alleged that Raza Ali received the money from him for onward handing it over to Ghazan Khan, yet Raza tried to exempt Mr Ghazan from the entire transaction by stating that he didn’t hand over the money to him.

NAB has accused Raza Ali of receiving Rs198 million from Arshad Majeed, to whom most of the contracts of procurement were awarded, out of which he kept Rs3 million for himself whereas rest of the 195 million were handed over to Mr Ghazan.

Officials say plea bargain in arms procurement case in final stage

An official of NAB privy to the negotiations told Dawn that Raza Ali agreed to pay 50 per cent of the amount through bank draft and would give bank guarantee of remaining 50 per cent of the amount to NAB prior to acceptance of the application. “Once the suspect fulfils this requirement, his application will be finally accepted and his case will be referred to the accountability court for his release,” he added.

Normally, a suspect or accused when enters into plea bargain with NAB he has to pay the agreed amount in three installments, one of the installment of 34 per cent of the total amount and rest of the two of 33 per cent each. However, in instant case, the NAB high ups decided that the suspect has to pay 50 per cent first through draft and to give bank guarantee of rest of the amount which would be cashed after his release.

Raza Ali has submitted the application for plea bargain under Section 25 (b) of National Accountability Ordinance 1999. The said section empowers NAB chairman to accept such application on such terms and conditions as he may consider necessary, and if the accused agrees to return to NAB the amount determined by it, the chairman shall refer the case for the approval of the court.

In the instant case, NAB has claimed that an amount of over Rs7 billion was released by provincial government for procurement of weapons, vehicles and equipment for countering the unabated law and order situation in the province.

A reference of Rs2.03 billion has already been filed against 10 of the suspects including a former provincial police officer Malik Naveed, Ghazan Khan, Raza Ali and seven police officials.

Experts dealing with NAB cases believe that once Raza’s plea bargain is accepted by NAB and he pays the money for which he and Ghazan have been charged, then there are chances of the release of the latter as there would be no charge left against him in the reference.

The prime suspect in the case, Malik Naveed, was arrested on Nov 20, 2013. He has already been in judicial custody. Raza Ali was arrested in Jan 2014 by NAB, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, whereas Ghazan Khan was arrested after his pre-arrest bail petition was dismissed by Peshawar High Court in April 2014.

Arshad Majeed and budget officer of police Javed Khan were initially arrested on Feb 21, 2013, but the former was released on bail by the high court after he turned approver and agreed to return Rs102 million voluntarily.

Later on May 25, 2013, Arshad Majeed recorded his statement wherein he alleged that he made payments to the tune of over Rs1 billion to several people, including Malik Naveed, as kickbacks for getting lucrative contracts and cover-up of the issue.

In his statement, Arshad Majeed also alleged that he had made payments to Ghazan Khan through Raza Ali.

Published in Dawn, December 8th, 2014