NBWs again issued for two real estate developers

By Our Correspondent
December 05, 2019

An accountability court has again issued non-bailable warrants (NBWs) of arrest for two real estate developers in a case pertaining to the allegedly illegal allotment of a prime land in the upmarket Clifton neighbourhood on which a skyscraper was constructed.

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The Accountability Court-IV judge on Wednesday issued the warrants for two developers, including Muhammad Yaqoob of the DJ Builders, ordering the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to arrest them and bring them to court on December 23.

The anti-graft watchdog had booked Pak Sarzameen Party chief and former Karachi mayor Mustafa Kamal and 10 others for the allegedly illegal sale and purchase of an amenity plot spread over more than 6,000 square yards.

The other suspects are former and current government officers Fazlur Rehman, Iftikhar Qaimkhani, Mumtaz Haider, Syed Nishat Ali and Nazir Zardari, and real estate developers Muhammad Dawood, Muhammad Yaqoob, Muhammad Irfan and Muhammad Rafiq. In a previous hearing the judge had rejected the applications of the accused to drop the NAB reference. He had observed that the pleas by the defendants were devoid of merits and so they were dismissed.

Meanwhile, the investigating officer filed a compliance report regarding the execution of the NBWs previously issued by the court for the arrest of both the builders. The report stated that one of the builders was said to be under treatment in London and Yaqoob was also in a foreign country.

The lawyer for one of the defendants filed an application on behalf of his client to request the court to take back the NBW issued against him, arguing that he was under treatment abroad and due to his health could not travel back to appear in court.

NAB’s prosecutor opposed the plea citing a judgment passed by the Sindh High Court in another case wherein it was held that since the offences punishable under the National Accountability Ordinance were non-bailable, instead of issuing notices, the trial court could issue NBWs for those suspects who might avoid appearing in court.

After hearing the arguments from both sides, the judge reserved his verdict on the plea to be announced on the next date on which a hearing would take place.

According to NAB, the suspects had sold an amenity plot owned by the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation in Clifton to a private builder to construct a high-rise.

The plot of 6,632 square yards situated between Abdullah Shah Ghazi’s shrine and Bagh Ibne Qasim was supposed to be given to sea-shell hawkers to set up their stalls, but it was illegally sold to builders at below the market price, claims the watchdog. NAB maintained that Kamal had approved the commercial status of the plot, following which it was sold to DJ Builders, which later sold it to Bahria Town.

The watchdog said the plot’s price was shown to be Rs260 million, while it valued more than Rs2.5 billion, adding that the plot had initially been divided into 198 stalls to be handed over to hawkers, but the plan did not materialise.

NAB said that in 2007 the plot was amalgamated into one and sold to DJ Builders, while in 2014 it was sold to Bahria Town, which started work on it to build a skyscraper. The watchdog said the entire process was illegal, as neither can the status of the plot be changed nor a building higher than a storey be built on it. It added that the suspects using their influence caused loss of over Rs2 billion to the national exchequer.

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