Wealth of building control’s former chief to be looked into

Court rejects report by anti-corruption officer, orders new inquiry.

KARACHI: If you are the chief of Karachi’s building authority, you are arguably more powerful than the mayor - for all the wrong reasons. One former chief of the Sindh Building Control Authority, Rauf Akhtar Farooqui, has become the subject of an inquiry ordered by the Sindh High Court that wants his assets examined.

The order came on Tuesday during the hearing of a petition filed by Haji Muhammad Iqbal, who had accused the former building controller of misusing his official position to amass wealth.

The plaintiff alleged that Farooqui had ignored illegal and unapproved construction for at least 18 mega projects in Karachi. The list of projects included Saima Tower of I.I.Chundrigar Road, Saima Shopping Mall at Rashid Minhas Road, Seema Centre, Seema Elctronic Market, China Shopping Mall, Gul Centre, Sarawan Hotel, Gulf Hotel, Hotel Salateen and Zainab Market among others.

On Tuesday, the bench rejected the report by inquiry officer of the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE), Inspector Zahid H Bukhari, who submitted that at least 11 files relating to the “illegally constructed projects” were missing from the Sindh Building Control Authority record. The anti-corruption officer had suggested to his superiors to write about the missing files to the director-general of the building watchdog.

Justices Maqbool Baqar and Niamatullah Phulpoto rejected the report and gave the ACE another chance to investigate the affairs of the Sindh Building Control Authority and its once-powerful chief controller. The bench directed all the authorities and departments concerned to cooperate with the inquiry officer. The building control director was ordered to give “free and complete access” to the anti-corruption investigator. The court also directed the State Bank of Pakistan to assist in “uncovering” the bank accounts by Farooqui and his dependents.

The hearing was put off for four weeks.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 5^th, 2012.