The case is the first land scam brought before an ATC this year. PHOTO: MOHAMMAD NOMAN/EXPRESS
Those declared proclaimed offenders included Hammad Siddiqui, the longest serving incharge of MQM's Karachi Tanzeemi Committee (KTC) - one of the most powerful bodies of the party - that controlled its 28 sectors and 205 units in its bastion. Siddiqui served as the KTC incharge for four years between 2009 and 2013, before being dismissed by MQM chief Altaf Hussain for 'violating party discipline'.
Another big name among the proclaimed offenders was that of Muhammad Ahsan alias Chunnu Mamu, a notorious name that surfaced recently when the paramilitary-led targeted operation expanded its domain against the financers of terrorism. Ahsan is said to be the brother of a London-based leader of the MQM, Muhammad Anwar, and is the alleged mastermind behind the large-scale land-grabbing in the city.
The two others were identified as Saleem Qureshi and Shakir alias Langra, who in the police record were reported to be the henchmen of Siddiqui and Ahsan.
During the hearing, the inspector-ranked police officer who is investigating the case submitted a report stating that all the four absconding suspects were on the run and did not themselves own any property in Karachi. The officer added that he and his team made several efforts to arrest them but in vain.
The ATC-III judge, after accepting the report, ordered that the absconding suspects be declared as proclaimed offenders. The case in question is the first ever land scam brought before an ATC this year.
In the report, the prosecution maintained that the absconding suspects in collusion with arrested suspects Faisal Masroor and Mujibullah Siddiqui caused a huge loss to the national exchequer with their fraudulent schemes of land allotment. Moreover, the prosecution alleged that the money obtained through this ill business was used to run a crime syndicate in the city.
Both Masroor and Mujibullah were arrested in mid-April by the Rangers and were subsequently detained for 90 days over charges of terrorism activities.
During the inquiry, the prosecution stated, the suspects confessed to their involvement in several irregularities in land records and of making huge profits out of this ill business.
The police use the term of 'china-cutting' to explain the suspects' business. The term is informally denoted to carving smaller residential plots out of big pieces of land meant for public amenity schemes. In the said case, the china-cutting was done in the upscale Bath Island area.
The case is registered at the Frere Town police station under sections 420 (cheating), 447 (criminal trespass), 448 (house trespass), 468 (forgery) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code, 11H (fund raising), 11V (directing terrorism activites) and section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 5th, 2015.
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