Former SBCA chief obtains interim bail in Nasla Tower case

Former director general (DG) of the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) Manzoor Qadir Kaka, who had been declared a fugitive in the Nasla Tower case, appeared before an anti-corruption court and secured interim pre-arrest bail on Wednesday.

Ex-SBCA directors general Kaka and Ashkar Dawar, along with 19 others, were booked by the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) in January last year on charges of fraud, criminal breach of trust, forgery and corruption.

Kaka had been declared a proclaimed offender in the present case over his continued absence from the trial proceedings. He obtained protective bail from the Islamabad High Court to avoid his arrest after his return from abroad.

On Wednesday, the accused along with his counsel Iftikhar Ahmed Shah appeared before the anti-corruption court and moved an application for grant of interim pre-arrest bail.

The counsel submitted that the former SBCA DG wanted to join the investigation and face charges but feared his arrest in the present case, pleading with the court to grant him interim pre-arrest bail.

Without touching merits of the case, the judge granted Kaka bail subject to the submission of a surety of Rs500,000 and adjourned the hearing until July 31 for confirmation of the bail or otherwise.

In March, the court had indicted 17 accused, including former and serving officials of the SBCA in the Nasla Tower case.

According to the prosecution, an inquiry initiated on the directives of the Supreme Court had revealed that the management of the Sindhi Muslim Cooperative Housing Society 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, the sub-lease of which was only for 780 square yards.

On the basis of such increase, then Jamshed Town mukhtiarkar Khair Muhammad 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 with the 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, whereas in the approved layout plan, it was only 780 square yards.

A case was registered under the 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 document), and 334 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) read with the Section 5(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act on behalf of the state through ACE Inspector Zahid Hussain Mirani.