Abdul Ghani Majeed, 7 others request plea bargain worth Rs 10.66 bn: Sources

ISLAMABAD: Recoveries in the illegal land allotment and forceful occupation of state-owned land along with Fake Bank Accounts Case have been initiated under the National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) plea bargain procedure, ARY News reported on Wednesday.

Massive illegal land occupation and allotment scam busted by the anti-graft watchdog in the wide-ranging Steel Mills land corruption scandal and Fake Bank Accounts case currently being investigated has met with a breakthrough where 8 of the prime accused have accepted to cough up a large sum of money as ‘plea bargain’ along with a massive chunk of land originally owned by Sindh Government and Pakistan Steel Mills.

Abdul Ghani Majeed along with 7 others have decided to settle matters with the state, offering Rs 10.66 billion as plea bargain, sources privy to the matter revealed.

Sources further revealed that prime accused, Abdul Ghani Majeed has agreed to pay approximately 2.9 billion rupees as plea bargain to the National Accountability Bureau.

The accused have also agreed to hand over plots and land illegally held by them, making up almost 266.175 acres.

Sources unveiled names of the people who decided to agree to the plea bargain as follows: Hammad Shahid, Tariq Baig, Muhammad Iqbal and Muhammad Tauseef.

Chairman NAB, Justice (r) Javed Iqbal has approved the request for plea bargains and referred it to the accountability court for further deliberation.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Rawalpindi on August 27 claimed to have recovered over Rs13 billion in fake bank accounts scandal case.

Briefing to NAB Chairman Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal on fake bank accounts scandal case at Rawalpindi office, Director General Irfan Naeem Mangi said that six references had been filed against former president Asif Ali Zardari, his sister Faryal Talpur, Abdul Ghani Majeed, Younus Qidwai, and Hussain Lawai.

He said that the money recovered from the suspects had been submitted in the national exchequer.

Former President of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari, his sister and 32 other accused are facing charges of laundering more than Rs35 billion through fake bank accounts.