Graft case: Bail plea of 17-grade officer dismissed’

Deen is accused of, making unauthorised land allotments.

ISLAMABAD: Post arrest bail of Malik Deen, a grade-17 officer of the district administration of Islamabad, accused of being involved in a multi-million rupees land fraud case, was dismissed on Friday by a division bench of the Islamabad High Court (IHC).

The division bench comprising Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb rejected Deen’s bail plea who converted Rs678 million worth land reserved for sector E-11 graveyard into commercial plots and allotted them to his “associated beneficiaries.”

According to investigation conducted by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), on February 14, 2012, Deen was appointed as administrator of private housing societies of Sector E-11 for a period of 60 days.

Under Clause 5(i) of his appointment letter he “shall not make any allotment of plots, whether fresh or pending, initiate any development work or make any payment pertaining to any development work and sale or purchase of land.”

It was later discovered that Deen had violated the terms and conditions of his appointment letter and illegally issued allotment letter to his associated beneficiaries and kept the lucrative position of administrator for almost 15 months.

An inquiry was initiated by NAB against Deen on January 13, 2016 and he was arrested on March 24, 2016.

Opposing the post arrest bail to Deen, the bureau in its written reply informed the IHC that he “is a highly influential person and he shall hamper the ongoing process of inquiry, investigation and collection of evidence.”

NAB’s report expressed apprehensions that Deen may exercise his influence to manipulate the potential witnesses as well.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 25^th, 2016.