Syed Ali Nawaz Shah
An accountability court sentenced on Thursday an incumbent Sindh lawmaker and others to jail after convicting them of a land scam pertaining to the irrigation and drainage system around River Indus.
The Pakistan Peoples Party MPA, Syed Ali Nawaz Shah, and two others, former lawmaker Syed Khadim Ali Shah and bureaucrat Syed Imtiaz Ali Shah, were found guilty of causing millions of rupees' loss to the national exchequer by drawing funds in the name of fake and fictitious land acquisition.
The Federal Accountability Court-IV in Karachi found Nawaz, who also served as the agriculture minister in the past, as the prime culprit and sent him to five years in prison, imposing on him a fine of Rs563,200. Khadim and Imtiaz were awarded four- and three-year imprisonments with a fine of Rs547,525 and Rs431,106, respectively.
The judgment also bans the convicts from holding any public office for 10 years, during which they cannot contest any elections, nor can they secure any job in the government. Banks will not provide them with any kind of loan during this time, the judgment added.
The inquiry of the embezzlement of funds was initiated in 2001 by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and took around nine years to conclude as a formal case. NAB registered a case against them in 2010. The trial of the case was conducted for five years, during which a suspect, Qutb Shah, died of natural causes.
According to the prosecution, the convicts, in collaboration with each other, prepared bogus power of attorneys of land purchased for Left Bank and Right Bank Outfall Drains, known as LBOD and RBOD, around River Indus. The land purchased was fraudulently shown to be larger on paper than its actual size, the prosecution maintained, adding that this was how the funds were drawn illegally.
Nawaz, 73, has a long political resume with the PPP since its formation until now, having had numerous stints as a federal and provincial minister, senator and member of provincial assemblies. He was also imprisoned a number of times during political movements, mostly during General Zia's regime and Nawaz Sharif's past government. In the past general elections, he was elected from the PS-65 constituency in his native town Mirpurkhas. He is a landlord and agriculturist by profession.
Reacting on the court decision, Sindh information minister Nisar Ahmed Khuhro said that Nawaz has never been involved in corruption and he is an uncontroversial, respected stalwart of the party. "We respect the court decision but will challenge it before a higher court," he said.
Khuhro added that the re-opening of cases against PPP leaders was not new and such action had already been taken against the party in past, which later proved groundless.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 11th, 2015.
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