FIA warns KMC against obstructing investigations

Karachi
The Federal Investigation Agency was quick on the trigger in response to the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation’s letter about the former overstepping its jurisdiction by writing back that in fact it was the latter that was crossing the line.
The FIA, assisted by Rangers, raided the KMC land department office at the Civic Centre on July 24 and took land records into custody for their investigation into embezzlements in land distribution.
KMC administration deputy secretary Zahid Khemtio wrote a letter to the Sindh FIA director waning him that if all the seized records were not returned within three days, the civic body would reserve the right to initiate criminal as well as civil proceedings against the agency.
In response to the letter, Sindh FIA director Shahid Hayat Khan wrote back the agency was engaged in a formal inquiry into terror financing and funding of criminal activities in Karachi, which had its origins in the illegal sale and purchase of land, also known as “China cutting” and it was expected that the KMC and the KDA would work shoulder to shoulder with the FIA and assist it in the probe.
The FIA director warned him that the intimidation of a public servant in order to force him to refrain from discharging his lawful duties constitutes to an offence punishable under Section 6(1)(m) of the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997 and that was why the KMC administration deputy secretary should withdraw his letter.
In his letter, the KMC administration deputy secretary stated that no prior information of the raid was given to the KMC and it was conducted after office hours.
“The FIA, being a statutory body, is duly bound to act in accordance with the law and within the parameters prescribed by the parliament, in its infinite wisdom under the FIA Act, 1974. As per the FIA Act, the jurisdiction of the FIA is confined to matters concerning the federal government only and departments which are under its administrative control,” he wrote.
“You should appreciate that the KMC under any stretch of imagination is neither part of the federal government nor is it under the administrative control of the federal government. Therefore KMC as such is not amenable to the jurisdiction of FIA.”
He complained that instead of strictly adhering to its statutory role, not only did the officers of the FIA raided the office of the KMC but also seized and confiscated the entire original record of its land department situated on the 10th floor of the Civic Centre. No inventory or copies of the record was made by the officers and that in itself was an arbitrary exercise and abuse of power by the FIA which had caused a great deal of anxiety not only among the officers of the KMC but also the public at large whose records had been taken away.
He also wrote that it was the KMC’s legal and constitutional right that if the FIA required any particular document from it, a request should have been made in writing.
However, he added, the act of unilaterally raiding an office of a government department and taking away all original records was contrary to law and a blatant excess of authority committed by the FIA officials.
He stated that the mala-fide intentions of the FIA officials was evident from the fact that instead of making an inventory and making copies of the records, the original files were taken away in an illegal and unlawful manner. “It is out contention that the documents have been surreptitiously stolen by the FIA officials.”
In response to the letter, the Sindh FIA director wrote back that instead of appreciating the genuine efforts for the FIA against China cutting, an attempt was being made to hamper legal proceedings under the FIA Act 1974.
“The department [KMC] is bound under the law to provide assistance and information to the FIA for the completion of the inquiry on merit and if they were hampered, it will benefit none other than the criminals involved in these nefarious activities.”
The FIA director pointed out that on the approval of the competent authority, the FIA had registered inquiry No-11/2015 with the counter-terrorism wing and seized the relevant records under proper seizure memos.
The inquiry was registered on the basis of interrogation of many suspects who had disclosed that they were remained involved in land grabbing and China cutting in several areas of Karachi on government properties and amenity plots including playgrounds, parks, land reserved for mosques etc through fraud and forgery and other criminal activities in connivance with officers of the KMC, the KDA, the Board of Revenue and other departments including the former administrator, the former Sindh Building Control Authority chief Manzoor Qadir Kaka, former SBCA DG Saif Abbas, KDA land department directors Najamuz Zaman, Arif, Shakir Langra and Iqbal Nawaz, DSP Jawed Abbas. Besides, officers of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board and political activists, businessmen, builders and others including Muttahida Qaumi Movement leader Mohammad Anwar’s brother Mohammad Ahsan alias Chunno Mamoo, Nooruddin Khumeni, Mohsin Shaikhani, Illyas Sehgal, Hammad Siddiqui Anjum Jameel Siddique, Zafar Faridi and Naeem Yousufzai.
The FIA director stated that the culprits also disclosed that large amounts of money had been transferred to the activists of a few political parties in Karachi and also to the UAE and the UK through the hawala process. These funds were used for criminal and terrorist activities in the city. After the registration of inquiry, the suspects in the custody of Rangers and police were again interrogated and they reiterated their previous disclosures.
They suspects also disclosed that most of the records pertaining to China cutting at the KDA office was fake.
The FIA director pointed out that necessary correspondence had taken place with the senior KDA land management wing director, the estate and enforcement director and the KMC master plan department senior director at the Civic Centre Karachi though a counter-terrorism wing letter on July 24 prior to the raid for the provision of the records pertaining to China cutting.
The letters were received by directors Mumtaz Haider, Jameel Baloch and Nasir Abbas.
The KMC administrator and the municipal commissioner were also contacted on the phone and requested to facilitate the FIA by providing the records. The officers who were contacted had consented to provdie the records.
The FIA officers visited the KDA office and contacted directors Jameel Baloch and Nasir Abbas. The enforcement director was asked about the records pertaining to china cutting and they were seized with the help of the information he had provided.
The FIA director wrote that the record comprised fake and forged documents which did not belong to the KDA’s official records. The records was secured under a proper seizure memo and shifted to the FIA CTW, Karachi.
The FIA director said it was clear that agency had acted strictly in accordance with law and the schedule attached with FIA Act 1974. The offences under Anti-Terrorism Act 1997 fell within the FIA’s ambit for which the competent authority had issued the necessary directions to conduct an inquiry on merit.
He said the FIA had seized records only from the 3rd floor of the Civic Centre, not from the 10th floor on the information provided by KDA officers who also admitted that the records were not part of the official ones but prepared by activists of a political party and were exclusively being controlled by them.
The FIA director advised the KMC official that if his department still believed that the records were original, it could send a team of officers to sift through them and check them for their authenticity. He also wrote that a joint team comprising the FIA, NAB, the provincial anti-corruption establishment and the local government department could be formed to investigate the scam, which initial investigation suggested involved tens of billions of rupees.