Land allotment to UAE national: NAB is also giving fake report, SC

KARACHI: Th Supreme Court (SC) on Friday took exception to National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) inquiry report over the allotment of two acres of land worth billions of rupees in Gulshan-e-Iqbal to a UAE national and directed NAB to file a fresh report after considering all aspects.

Hearing an application against construction of high rise adjacent to Aladin Park at Gulshan-e-Iqbal, the Supreme Court’s three-member bench headed by Justice Gulzar Ahmed observed as how the land was allotted to the UAE national which was property of evacuee trust and the horticulture society. The bench observed that how many Qatari letters have been produced to run the country and inquired as how much land has been sold out to UAE.

The SC bench observed that the allotment was prima facie against the Supreme Court’s interim stay order that banned allotment and conversion of the state land shown allotted in back dated entries in 1991. It observed that a Saudi official was also allotted an amenity plot in DHA which was later cancelled on the orders of the court.

The court took exception to filing of NAB inquiry report and observed that the court had clearly directed NAB chairman to file report about the status of land in question. The court termed the NAB report as unsatisfactory and false observing that investigation officer of the inquiry will be sent to jail if the report is taken on record.

The court observed that NAB is acting as a silent spectator over allotment of two acres land to a UAE resident and it seems that all departments have collaborated for plots allotment. The court inquired from NAB’s law officer as why the law was not examined and how it was allotted for commercial purposes. The court observed that NAB has to examine as whether the land in question was allotted in accordance with the law or not.

The deputy prosecutor general NAB requested the court to return the report and submitted that a fresh report would be filed within two weeks. The NAB had ruled out allegations pertaining to allotment of land to allottee Nasser Abdullah Lootah, a UAE national and one of the board of directors of the Summit Bank, for want of incriminating material. The NAB’s investigator submitted that allotment was done in 1991 as a fresh allotment against a payment made to the government of Sindh.

The antigraft body cleared the transaction of allotment as an outcome of illegal conversion from one purpose to other and opined that land approved by the competent authority was not liable to be cancelled.