Accountability court awards five-year jail terms to 10 ex-revenue officials

HYDERABAD: Hyderabad National Accountability Court (NAB) Special Judge Naseem Jalal Soomro gave a verdict in an illegal government land allotment case on Thursday, and handed down jail terms to 10 Sindh government revenue employees and two private persons.A total of 18 accused had been nominated in the case in 2017, and a reference had been filed two years later. Four of the accused entered into plea bargain, and two died during the proceedings.

The main accused, Hanif Lalani, who masterminded the sale of government land to the DHA, is among the beneficiaries of plea bargain.

It was mentioned in the reference that during the investigation it was revealed that the DHA Karachi being affectee of the scam purchased the land in good faith after due diligence.

According to the court order, the convicts made fake entries in the revenue record of lands and embezzled Rs2.84 billion. The court ordered the DHA Karachi to return 731 acres of land to the Sindh government.

According to the verdict, chief planner Hanif Lalani, along with former Mukhtiarkar Arsad Kamlani, transferred 731 acres of government land in the name of Mian Bux Lalani, Nazir Ahmed Jokhio and Mian Khan Palari through fake entries.

After private entries on government land, Hanif Lalani, Mian Bakhsh Lalani, Javed Hussain, and the late Mian Khan Palari sold 731 acres of land to DHA in 2015.

Hanif Lalani and accused Farooq Qasmani opened accounts in a private bank branch in Jamsoro and Karachi University in a fake manner. A fake account was also created in the name of the late Mian Khan Palari, which was operated with the help of revenue employees even after his death in 2017.

Revenue employees, including former DC Sohail Adeel Bachani, former assistant commissioners Javed Soomro and Mumtaz Chana, and mukhtiarkars Irshad Kamlani and Ghulam Muhammad Memon were sentenced to five years’ imprisonment and a fine of Rs2.5 million each in the case.

Two private individuals, Mian Bux and Imam Bux, have been sentenced to 10 years in prison and told to pay a fine of Rs780 million each.

An investigation into the encroachment of 731 acres of government land in Tehsil Thana Bola Khan of the Jamshoro district was initiated in 2017, and a reference was filed in 2019.