Land scam: Minhaj Qazi, four others indicted in fraud case

Qazi is also being tried for murder of KESC managing director in 1997

KARACHI: An accountability court indicted on Monday suspected hitman Minhaj Qazi and five others in a fraud case and summoned witnesses to depose their testimonies against the suspects on the next hearing.

Qazi alias Asad and his partners, Shoaib Naeem, Noreen Shoaib, Zeenat Naeem and Suhail Ilyas, were accused of deceiving the public and looting Rs320 million from them through the Areesha City Housing Project, located off Northern Bypass.

According to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), the suspects cheated low-income earners promising them an affordable housing scheme. The anti-graft body maintains that those who booked plots in the scheme were not given the plots despite paying the sums.

The NAB had filed this reference against the suspects on May 18 this year after which the court had issued non-bailable warrants for their arrest. The case surfaced after Qazi was arrested by the Rangers from the Garden area of Karachi in January this year after a long run and was later handed over to the police for further proceedings.

Qazi is suspected to be a former hitman and later a militant commander of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement. He is also being tried in the 19-year-old triple murder of then Karachi Electric Supply Corporation managing director Shahid Hamid, his driver and guard. He was a prominent member of the party and remained associated with it for around two decades.

The accountability court has fixed November 5 for recording of witnesses' statements in the land fraud case.

In a video that surfaced recently, Qazi, who is presently at the Central Jail Karachi, switched loyalties to the Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP). In a report published in The Express Tribune on October 27, 2016, it was stated that nearly 1,500 MQM workers have been arrested by the paramilitary force and police in different criminal cases over the course of the Karachi Operation, which began over three years ago. Nearly half of those detained workers have so far switched their loyalties to the PSP. "Since we launched the party, so far over 700 imprisoned workers have joined us," PSP spokesperson Iftikhar Alam had confirmed.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 1^st , 2016.