IBA under pressure from minister Khursheed Shah: MPA
Sindh Assembly member Shaharyar Mahar, who is the son of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q’s Ghous Bux Mahar, was nominated in the FIR. “The land dispute is between the IBA Sukkur and Bahadur Khoso,” he said. “I am being implicated in this case on the instigation of Federal Minister for Labour and Manpower Khursheed Ahmed Shah.”
Mahar was named a suspect by IBA director Nisar Siddiqui after his registrar Zahid Hussain Khand was shot on Airport Road Wednesday. Khand had registered a case against Mahar and Bahadur Khoso a year ago for encroaching on IBA’s land and had appeared in court on Monday against the MPA. Mahar’s brother Arif had said the MPA was not in the country at the time.
By Friday, Mahar flew back to Karachi from the US. He said he bought the disputed land in Deh Arain on Airport Road more than a year ago. He bought 18 acres from al Shifa Trust and 16 acres from Bahadur Khoso, he told The Express Tribune. “The IBA’s land is located right in the middle of my land and was in my possession for over a year,” he said. “I had even sown paddy crop on it.”
A year ago, IBA officers with the help of the police, raided the land, maltreated his men and when he objected to it, he was told that the land belongs to IBA, said Mahar. “The then DPO Sukkur Sharjeel Kharal apologised, saying that he had followed the orders of Khursheed Shah.”
Despite all the wrongdoings on IBA’s part, a case was registered against me and Khoso, the MPA claimed. “The Sindh government allotted that piece of land to IBA, after which they constructed a boundary wall around it.”
Mahar explained that he had been in the US since November 13 with a delegation of young Pakistani and Indian parliamentarians and had returned to the country on Friday morning. “Now, once again, my men have been implicated in a false case of firing and injuring the IBA registrar,” he said.
Ishaq Mahar, who has also been nominated in the case, is his manager and was in Raiwind at the time of the incident, said Shaharyar Mahar. The police raided his office in Sukkur and arrested his accountant and his guard. They later released the accountant, but his guard is still in police custody, he said.
“All this being done against my family is political victimisation because I plan to contest the next general election from Sukkur and my rivals fear the popularity of my family in the area,” the MPA claimed. “The IBA director and registrar are playing at the hands of the government.”
IBA’s stance
IBA director Nisar Ahmed Siddiqui categorically denied Mahar’s allegation, saying that the case was registered on the ground realities and not because of political pressure.
Addressing a press conference at the Sukkur Press Club on Friday, he said that in early 2009, the Sindh government had allotted five acres to IBA, for a girls hostel. “We had the plot registered to our name after paying Rs1.4 million to the government and completing all the other legal requirements,” he said.
Later, MPA Shaharyar Mahar purchased land for a housing scheme adjacent to the IBA plot, after which the institute constructed a boundary wall to protect it from land grabbers.
But 15 days after constructing the wall, Shaharyar’s men - who were armed and more than 100 in number - raided the plot, demolished the boundary wall, maltreated IBA employees and occupied the plot, he accused.
Siddiqui said IBA reclaimed the land later with the help of the police and registrar Zahid Khand lodged an FIR against Shaharyar Mahar and Bahadur Khoso. The case is in court.
On Monday, Khand had gone to court to record his statement, which angered Shaharyar and his men, the IBA director claimed. “And on Wednesday, Khand, along with his school-going children were on their way to the institute when three armed men intercepted and dragged him out of the car and shot him in his legs, saying, ‘This is a lesson for dragging our Sardar to court’.”
Siddiqui said the injured registrar has lodged an FIR against Ishaq Mahar and two unidentified persons, but no arrest has been made yet.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 11th, 2010.
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