PESHAWAR: A local accountability court on Saturday ordered the immediate release of a suspect in a corruption case after he agreed to pay Rs5 million in plea bargain.

Judge Ibrahim Khan issued the order after accepting Zahid Amin`s plea bargain request submitted to the National Accountability Bureau KhyberPakhtunkhwa under Section 25 of the National Accountability Ordinance 1999.

Under that section of the law, the NAB chairman is empowered to accept a suspect`s written request for plea bargain in a corruption case and forward it to the relevant accountability court for approval.

The NAB had arrested Zahid Amin in November last year alleging he had defrauded dozens of people of Rs7.1 million in the name of mudaraba (a mode of Islamic investment).

It alleged that the suspect used to receive money from the public at large on the commitment of providing profit much higher than theexisting financial institutions declaring their investment in line with Islamic laws.

The suspect remained in the NAB custody for several days and was kept at the Peshawar Central Prison on completion of physical remand.

CONTRABAND SMUGGLER CONVICTED: Local additional district and sessions judge Nusrat Yasmeen on Saturday convicted a man of smuggling contraband and sentenced him to life imprisonment and Rs100,000 fine.

In the capacity of a special judge of anti-narcotics, the judge ruled that the prosecution had proved the smuggling chargeagainst Waris Ali, a resident of Faisalabad.

The police had arrested Waris Ali in the provincial capital on Jan 14, 2012 when he was travelling in a vehicle.

They had recovered 60kg of charas from him and booked him under Section 9-C of the Control of Narcotics Substance Act 1997.

Public prosecutor Manzoor Khan, who appeared before the court for the state, said the suspect was caught red-handed while smuggling the seized contraband and that the report of the chemical examination too had found him to be guilty of the contraband smuggling.