PESHAWAR: An accountability court has approved the Rs39.8 million plea bargain of a deceased accused in the Rs310 million Peshawar Ring Road land acquisition case.

Judge Hafeez Naseem Akbar approved the plea of the legal heirs on the recommendation of the National Accountability Bureau, which has been pursuing the case since its establishment in 1999.

Interestingly, several accused in the case, including former chief minister Aftab Sherpao, former senator Gulsher Khan and former provincial minister Habibullah Kundi, have already been acquitted in the case, which about around Rs310 million loss allegedly inflicted on the exchequer by the accused by purchasing the Peshawar Ring Road land at exorbitant rates.

NAB chief already okayed deal request made by family of deceased accused

Jamsher Khan, who was the brother of Gulsher Khan, remained an absconder in the case before he died in 2007.

He was also sentenced to three years imprisonment in absentia as absconding from the law in a corruption case was a crime under the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999.

The NAB had attached some of his properties.

It insisted that Jamsher Khan and others in connivance with the relevant government officials and functionaries fraudulently and dishonestly caused a huge loss to the exchequer during the acquisition of land for the construction of Ring Road around Peshawar.

The bureau added that that the government of Pakhtunkhwa (the then NWFP) had planned to construct a ring road around Peshawar city passing through the Lala Ahmad and Mahal Saloo revenue circles and other villages.

It claimed that the land acquisition began in 1994, while the accused in connivance and collaboration with each other delayed it and possession of land and thus, helping landowners make sham mutations in the revenue records to increase land rate exorbitantly.

The NAB also said the legal heirs of late Jamsher had formally requested the NAB chairman for a plea bargain deal, which was accepted, and therefore, the matter was referred to the accountability court for necessary approval.

The accountability court had acquitted five accused, including Aftab Sherpao, Gul Sher, tehsildar Mosam Khan, and patwaris Nisar and Dilawar, on June 21, 2003. Their acquittal was also upheld by the high court.

On Oct 27, 2018, the court had acquitted Habibullah Kundi, who remained the housing and physical planning minister in Aftab Sherpao cabinet from 1994 to 1996.

Mr Kundi, a PTI leader, was earlier declared a proclaimed offender as he had absconded in the case in early 2000 when the trial was conducted against other accused.

Published in Dawn, November 14th, 2018