Ex-bureaucrat’s plea against NAB’s amended references dismissed

An accountability court (AC) on Thursday turned down former bureaucrat Ali Ahmed Lund’s plea against submission of an amended corruption reference by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).
The court allowed the anti-graft agency to present the amended reference against the former local government secretary, who is accused of misappropriating millions of rupees by misusing his authority.
At the outset of the hearing, the NAB prosecutor told the court that the amended reference was also a part of the case in which the former bureaucrat is alleged to have misappropriated Rs330 million. The prosecutor had submitted that the former secretary was also involved in making illegal appointments against 12,800 posts. The court put off the case till December 20.
As per the NAB’s reference, Ali Ahmed Lund along with others had committed corruption worth Rs330m. The accused is also facing a case pertaining to illegal appointments of around 12,800 employees.
Graft case
The AC concerned also adjourned the hearing in a corruption reference against former Karachi Development Authority (KDA) officers till December 7. The defence lawyers requested the court to adjourn the hearing so they could study the case to put forward their arguments.
Former KDA additional director Muhamamd Nasir Shaikh, Arif Khan, Shakir alias Langrra and some 14 other KDA employees are alleged to have committed corruption worth billions of rupees by disposing of government plots in the name of china-cutting, an infamous land grabbing scam. They are also alleged to have illegally occupied 23 amenity plots in Gulistan-e-Jauhar and converted them into 296 residential plots illegally.
The arrested former KDA additional director, Muhamamd Nasir Shaikh, is alleged to have committed corruption worth over Rs1 billion. The AC concerned heard the statement of a witness, Muhammad Saeed, against former officials of the Lines Area Development Project, namely Fareed Nasim, Shahid Umer, Atta Abbas and Rashid Naseem.
The witness stated that the detained former officials had disposed of around 227 plots under the so-called scheme of ‘china cutting’. The court fixed November 25 to hear the evidence of other prosecution witness.