Former and serving SBCA officials among 17 indicted in Nasla Tower case

An anti-corruption court on Tuesday indicted 17 accused, including former and serving officials of the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA), on charges of fraud, forgery and corruption in the Nasla Tower case.

Former SBCA directors general Manzoor Qadir Kaka and Ashkar Dawar, along with 19 others, had been booked by the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) in January last year over alleged fraud, criminal breach of trust, forgery and corruption.

Kaka, then Jamshed Town mukhtiarkar Khair Muhammad Dahri, and two others have been declared proclaimed offenders over their continuous absence from the trial proceedings.

The judge read out the charges against the accused, who turned up in the court on bail. They pleaded not guilty and opted to contest the case. Subsequently, the court directed the prosecution to present its witnesses on the next date to record their testimonies. The hearing was adjourned until March 25.

The accused include Dawar, the SBCA’s master plan department (MPGO) EDO Hafiz Muhammad Javed, then MPGO additional district officer Wilayat Ali Data, MPGO DDO Bashir Ahmed Khan, SBCA structure director Ali Mehdi Kazmi, SBCA Jamshed Town Director Safdar Magsi, SBCA Design Deputy Director Farhan Qaiser, SBCA Town Planning Assistant Director Syed Muhammad Zia, SBCA Jamshed Town deputy director Sarfaraz Hussain and Sindhi Muslim Cooperative Housing Society (SMCHS) honorary secretary Naveed Bashir and member Muhammad Asif.

According to the prosecution, an inquiry initiated on the directives of the Supreme Court revealed that the management of the SMCHS in connivance with the owner of the plot, Muzammil Amin Darzi, issued letters for allotment of extra land of 264 square yards in 2006-07 that was meant for amenity/service road and forwarded the matter to the MPGO for conversion of land use from residential to commercial for 1,044 square yards without proper title documents of the alleged plot whose sub-lease was only for 780 square yards.

On the basis of such increase, then Jamshed Town Mukhtiarkar Dahri allegedly made an illegal entry. Subsequently, during 2010, an extra land of 77 square yards was allowed and such matter was referred to the MPGO for conversion from residential to commercial for 1,121 square yards.

Officers of the MPGO in connivance of each other and the builder issued the conversion order of the plot firstly for 1,044 square yards in 2007 and secondly for 1,121 square yards while in the approved layout plan, it was only 780 square yards.

The officers of the SBCA in connivance with each other and the builder during 2013-14 processed and approved the TP NOC and building plan of the Nasla Tower for the construction of the building on 1,121 square yards.

A case was registered under sections 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant or by banker, merchant or agent), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged documents), and 334 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) read with Section 5(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act on behalf of state through ACE Inspector Zahid Hussain Mirani.