Corruption charges: LARP officials indicted for land grabbing

The accountability court-II judge framed charges on former project director Farid Ahmed Yusufani, and others

KARACHI:

An accountability court indicted on Saturday the employees of Lines Area Redevelopment Project (LARP) in a case pertaining to land grabbing and corruption.

The accountability court-II judge framed charges on former project director Farid Ahmed Yusufani, director Waseem Iqbal, deputy directors Farid Nasim, Shahid Umar, additional directors Ata Abbas and Rashid Hussain of the organisation. The suspects have been accused of grabbing 1,200 plots worth around Rs5 billion through infamous China-cutting to bypass the auction. They allegedly took commission for the illegal allotments of the land at low prices. They were arrested in July and August last year by the National Accountability Bureau.

As the judge read out the charges to the suspects and, as per formality, asked them if they confess to the crime, they all refuted and opted to contest the case. The judge summoned the witnesses named in the case to appear at the next hearing.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 17^th, 2016.