Former KDA official’s acquittal petition dismissed

SC throws out plea of former additional director who is accused of land grabbing, corruption of Rs500m


Our Correspondent March 13, 2018
Sindh High Court. PHOTO: EXPRESS

KARACHI:  

The Supreme Court (SC) dismissed on Monday an acquittal application filed by the Karachi Development Authority's (KDA) former additional director, Mumtazul Haq, who is allegedly involved in land grabbing and corruption of Rs500 million.

A two-judge bench, headed by Justice Gulzar Ahmed, threw out his plea after hearing the arguments of the defence lawyer as well as the National Accountability Bureau's (NAB) prosecutor at the SC's Karachi Registry.

The judges observed that the applicant was facing allegations of being directly involved in corrupt practices. Therefore, the judges observed that the applicant may seek remedy, if any, from the concerned accountability court where graft reference against him was pending, in accordance with the law.

The country's top anti-graft watchdog had arrested Haq along with ex-planning director Akhlaq Ahmed and ex-assistant director of master plan Munir Ahmed Khan following the cancellation of their bail applications.

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According to NAB, the former officials, in collusion with some other persons, had grabbed land reserved for a utilities conduit in Gulistan-e-Jauhar block one. During investigations, it was established that 13 plots, each measuring 293.33 square yards, were illegally carved out from land kept for the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board and K-Electric, the bureau asserted, estimating the total loss to the national exchequer to be around Rs500 million. A total of 22 suspects have been nominated by NAB in this reference.

However, the defence lawyer argued that the alleged illegal land allotments were made after the applicant's retirement from service. Therefore, the court was pleaded to quash the proceedings and acquit him of the charges.

IB official's appeal rejected

The same bench also dismissed a petition filed by an official of the Intelligence Bureau (IB), challenging his termination from service over leaking state secrets.

The petitioner, Shah Nawaz, argued that he was removed from service over allegations of leaking confidential official information. He argued that he was never provided a copy of the information he was accused of leaking.

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Therefore, he pleaded to the apex court to order his reinstatement.

During the proceedings, the judges observed that leaking confidential official information to undesired persons could not be allowed at any cost. They asked the petitioner's lawyer how the court could order the petitioner’s reinstatement, given that leaking confidential official information is a heinous crime.

With these observations, the SC bench dismissed the petition.

Rangers’ official's appeal dismissed

The same bench also dismissed an appeal filed by an official of the Rangers against his dismissal from service.

The applicant, Abdul Rehman, informed the court that he was appointed on a temporary basis and had served a two-year probationary period as per the service rules.

He argued that upon completing the probation period he was entitled to the regularisation of his services, but the respondents did not consider him in violation of the service rules.

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Rehman informed the court that he was dismissed from service for being absent from the job due to the demise of his father. However, a Rangers law officer contended that the appellant was dismissed from service for having a poor service record.

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