Land allotment case: NAB directed to act according to law

Sindh's top bureaucrat facing corruption inquiry

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) directed on Friday the National Accountability Bureau's (NAB) chairperson to act according to law against the provincial chief secretary, Muhammad Siddique Memon, who is facing an inquiry in an illegal land regularisation case.

In August last year, Memon had gone to the SHC stating that the NAB was accusing him of illegally regularising and allotting six acres of land in Karachi's Scheme 33.

The chief secretary said he had been served a call-up notice by the bureau, calling him for questioning in the case. He claimed that neither had he allotted such land nor had he regularised it. "Therefore, the notice from the NAB is mala fide and interference in the smooth functioning of the Sindh government," he had claimed.

The petitioner maintained that the NAB's call-up notice is illegal and unconstitutional since he has no role in the commission of the alleged offence. Therefore, Memon had pleaded the court to grant him bail before arrest to enable him to appear before the NAB for questioning.

The SHC had then granted him interim pre-arrest bail for a surety of Rs500,000.

On Friday, the Memon's lawyer argued that the NAB chairman had allowed the inquiry without examining the case in detail. Therefore, the bench directed the NAB chief to examine the case and take action strictly in accordance with the law.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 10^th, 2016.