ISLAMABAD: An accused in the illegal allotment of plot reference, in which former deputy chairman Senate Saleem Mandviwalla and ex managing director, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) Aijaz Haroon are also the accused, have entered into a plea bargain with National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

The prosecution in the reference which is also known as the Kidney Hill reference, informed an accountability court of Islamabad that the accused Azhar Hussain Mughal has filed an application before the NAB chairman for a plea bargain.

The prosecution submitted the application before the accountability court which states that Haroon being secretary of Overseas Cooperative Housing Society, “illegally and unlawfully” created 12 plots in the Kidney Hill area, which were reserved for a water reservoir and recreational park.

Haroon and Mandviwalla then entered into a property deal for disposing of these plots with Omni Group’s director Abdul Ghani Majeed and received illegal pecuniary benefit of Rs144.2 million from two fake bank accounts, the prosecution claimed. He said the crime proceeds were shared between Haroon, Mandviwalla and Nadeem Hakeem Mandviwalla.

As per the application, during the investigation of money trail, it was revealed that Aijaz Haroon received Rs80 million, while Mandviwallas got Rs64.2 million.

Haroon used his wife and other relatives for laundering the crime proceeds.

An amount of Rs16.22 million was transferred to the bank account of Shakeel Ahmed, who was an employee of the accused Azhar Hussain Mughal.

It added that Mughal admitted his involvement in the business of illegal transaction of money (hundi) and confessed to having laundered the said amount.

According to the prosecution, Mughal submitted an application for entering into plea bargain under section 25(b) of National Accountability Ordinance and offered to return illegal gains, adding, that the accused has

paid Rs16.22 million through pay order.

NAB requested the court to approve the said plea bargain deal.

Published in Dawn, August 31st, 2021