NAB swings into action in China-cutting cases

14 officials arrested after SHC dismisses their bail applications

KARACHI: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) arrested 14 Karachi Development Authority (KDA) officers immediately after their bail applications were dismissed by the Sindh High Court (SHC) on Thursday.

The SHC dismissed the applications of around 20 officials of the KDA in a case of illegal allotments.

Heading a two-judge bench, SHC Chief Justice Ahmed Ali M Sheikh dismissed the pleas after hearing arguments from both the sides.

The federal anti-graft watchdog had filed the reference against the KDA officials and private persons for their alleged involvement in the illegal allotment of 23 amenity plots in Gulistan-e-Jauhar and converting them into 296 residential plots through China-cutting. NAB claimed that the suspects had caused a Rs1.5 billion loss to the national exchequer.

 



Through their lawyers the suspects had moved pre-arrest bail applications and earlier the court granted them interim bail. However, the bails were later cancelled and NAB arrested the suspects including deputy district officers of the KDA Irfan Khan Yusufzai, Mohammad Kamran Warsi, Atif Naqvi and Syed Rizwan Ahmed, superintendents Khuda Bux Soomro, Akhtar Rasheed, Mohammad Hanif Khan and Sarfaraz Ahmed, clerks Shaikh Fareed, Sagheer Ahmed, Jahanzaib Iqbal and Mohammad Jumman, and beneficiaries Mohammad Feroze Bengali and Irfan Ahmed.

Later, the arrested men were brought before an accountability court and the judge, Amina Nazir Ansari, sent them to prison on judicial remand till December 23.

A suspect also moved an application seeking better facilities for which the court asked University of Karachi to verify his educational documents.

A total of 23 suspects are involved in the reference, of which Mohammad Shakir Langra, Mohammad Nasir, Fahimuddin Ahmed, Mushtaq and Nasir Kazmi are already in prison.

The bureau also summoned former city mayor Mustafa Kamal on Thursday and questioned him about illegal commercialisation of industrial plots along Rashid Minhas Road.

Kamal is accused of illegally granting permission to commercialise the plots during his tenure as mayor. He has previously been summoned by NAB to record his statement.