Govt officers involved in ‘China cutting’ not innocent, says SC

KARACHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed the petition of former additional director Karachi Development Authority (KDA) for quashing the China cutting corruption case.

Hearing petition of former KDA officer Mumtazul Haq, SC’s division bench, headed by Justice Gulzar Ahmed, observed that no relief could be granted to the petitioner as government officers involved in China cutting were not innocent.

The court observed that court had declared allotment of plots through China cutting as illegal and the officer was, thus not innocent.

The petitioner’s counsel submitted that his client had signed the documents pertaining to the allotment of alternate plots and he had nothing to do with the China cutting and illegal allotments of government land.

The court observed that the petitioner had admitted allotment of plots illegally and no relief could be granted to him and dismissed the petition.

It is pertinent to mention here that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had arrested the petitioner and KDA officers for their alleged involvement in land-grabbing through China cutting.

According to the NAB, an inquiry was initiated into land-grabbing through the China cutting method in Karachi; and during the probe, it was established that 13 plots each—measuring 293.33 square yards (numbers B-149/1 to B-149/13) in Block 1, Gulistan-e-Jauhar, Scheme 36—were created and constructed upon land reserved for a water conduit of the Karachi Water and Sewage Board (KWSB) and a high tension line of K-Electric by the KDA officials in connivance with the officials of the Master Plan Department, KWSB and Sindh Building Control Authority. The NAB alleged that accused caused a loss of Rs50o million to the national exchequer.