Syed Masoom Shah, special assistant to Awami National Party’s (ANP) former chief minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti, on Friday offered to voluntarily return Rs 22 billion to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to secure his release.
Shah, commonly known as SMS, made the offer of voluntary return in an application written to chairman NAB Chaudhry Qamar Zaman.
Earlier, the NAB had turned down his plea bargain to return Rs 200 million voluntarily.
He was arrested on August 11 by NAB Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa on charges of accumulating assets beyond known sources of income.
He was seen as a big catch and both NAB and the KP Ehtesab Commission wanted to arrest him. In fact, many were wondering how come his arrest had taken so long after the end of the ANP-PPP coalition government in 2013.