LAHORE: National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry said on Monday that under the law, the bureau was bound to extend plea bargain on an application by a convict.

Almost every country in the world had a plea bargain law, he said, adding that the voluntary return law had helped NAB recover Rs285 billion over the past 16 years.

Speaking to editors and senior journalists during a meeting, the NAB chief said the figure of corruption committed by former Balochistan finance secretary Mushtaq Ahmed Raisani amounted to Rs2.2 billion, and not Rs40bn as suggested by earlier media reports quoting a meeting of the NAB executive board.

Mr Chaudhry called upon the Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors (CPNE) to form a committee to investigate who had misrepresented the figure while reporting on the case.

He said the Balochistan government had commended NAB for recovering over Rs2bn through plea bargain with Mr Raisani. The money will go to the provincial government, he added.

Explaining the process of determining a plea bargain, he said NAB published advertisements in newspapers requesting the victims to come forward with their claims.

The bureau then added interest to the ñgure, as per the State Bank policy, and prepared a plea bargain based on the interest rate and the amount claimed by the victims, he added.

He said that every case was investigated by a four-member Combined Investigation Team and NAB proceeded with further action based on CIT`s findings.-APP