‘Illegal’ allotment: Chief secretary’s interim bail extended

Sindh’s top bureaucrat approached SHC last year against NAB’s inquiry against him.

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) extended the interim pre-arrest bail granted to the provincial chief secretary, Muhammad Siddique Memon, and directed the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to complete investigations into alleged illegal allotment and regularisation of land against him by June 7.

The province's top bureaucrat had approached the high court in August last year against NAB authorities over initiating an inquiry against him.

Memon said he was served a call-up notice by the bureau, calling him for questioning in connection with alleged illegal regularisation and allotting six acres of land in Karachi's Scheme 33 in 1992. He had maintained that the land was allotted in 1992 and regularised in 2008 in accordance with the laws while he was serving as secretary of the land utilisation department. "Therefore, the notice from NAB is mala fide and interference in the smooth functioning of the Sindh government," he had alleged.



The petitioner had pleaded that the court grant him bail before arrest. Previously, the SHC had granted him interim pre-arrest bail against a sum of Rs500,000 in surety.

During Tuesday's proceedings, NAB officials informed the court that the inquiry was still under way and sought more time for finishing the same and submitting a report in the court.

Allowing time, the bench extended the pre-arrest bail of Memon till June 7.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 11^th, 2016.