Indictment deferred due to Kamal’s absence in illegal allotment case

An accountability court on Wednesday deferred indictment in the case pertaining to an alleged illegal allotment of over 6,000-yard prime piece of land in Clifton as former Karachi mayor Mustafa Kamal, who is an accused, did not appear before the court given a bad health condition.

Kamal, the chairperson of the Pak Sarzameen Party, moved an application through his counsel before the accountability court-III judge, seeking exemption from the hearing for the day for he was not feeling well.

The judge approved the request and adjourned the hearing till November 21, observing that the court would frame charges on the accused at the next hearing. Besides Kamal, those who are facing the face include retired and serving bureaucrats – Fazlur Rehman, Iftikhar Qaimkhani, Mumtaz Haider, Syed Nishat Ali and Nazir Zardari – and builders.

According to the National Accountability Bureau, the suspects were involved in selling off an amenity plot owned by the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation in the Clifton neighbourhood to a private builder to construct a high-rise. The plot, measuring over 6,632 square yards, situated between the Abdullah Shah Ghazi shrine and the Bagh Ibn-e-Qasim, was supposed to be given to sea-shell hawkers to set up stalls, according to NAB, however, it was illegally sold to the builders below the market price.

NAB maintained that Kamal approved the commercial status of the plot after which it was sold to the builders. It said the price of the plot was shown at Rs260 million while it actually valued more than Rs2.5 billion.

In the beginning, it added, the plot was divided into 198 stalls, to be handed over to hawkers, but no implementation was done on it. Later in 2007, the plot was amalgamated into one and sold off to builders, according to NAB. NAB added that the whole process was illegal and neither the status of the plot could be changed nor a building higher than one-storey could be built on it. It said the suspects, using their influence, caused over Rs2 billion loss to the national exchequer.

Siraj Durrani's case

The same court also deferred indictment of Sindh Assembly Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani and 18 others in a graft reference as one of the accused has recovered from coronavirus.

NAB, in May 2019, had filed a reference against Durrani, his spouse, children, brother and others for possessing assets worth around Rs1.6 billion allegedly made through illegal means.

NAB maintained that Durrani could not account for a difference of Rs1,610,669,528 between his declared total income from 1985 to 2018 and the assets, including properties, vehicles and others valuables in his, his family, dependants and benamidar names which surfaced during an investigation.

It accused a total of 19 people, including his wife Naheed, son Shahbaz, daughters Sanam, Sonya, Shahana and Sara, brother Agha Masihuddin, Zulfiqar Dahar, Shamshad Khatoon, Munawar Ali, Ghulam Murtaza, Muhammad Ifran, Shakeel Soomro, Gulbahar Baloch, Aslam Langah, Tufail Shah, Mitha Khan, Muhammad Shah and Gulzar Ahmed, of colluding in the corruption.

At the outset of the hearing, the defence attorney for Khatoon told the judge that his client was still unwell because of Covid-19 and could not make it to the court for being under quarantine.

He sought deferment on behalf of his client. The judge, approving the request, fixed the indictment for November 9. The court directed all parties to ensure their presence at the next hearing.

With the reference, the anti-graft watchdog attached a list of 27 declared and undeclared assets, including properties, investments, vehicles, in Durrani and family’s name and stated that they valued Rs479.4 million, however, the accused showed them to be worth Rs151.6 million.

Furthermore, NAB showed Durrani as the beneficiary of seven benami properties, of these six in the DHA and one in Malir, worth over Rs1billion, that were allegedly purchased in the name of his servants. It added that six of these properties were sold to different people while one was still in his possession.

NAB maintained that Durrani provided incomplete and partial details of his assets and income so the details were obtained from the Federal Board of Revenue and the Election Commission of Pakistan. It said the total income of his family declared in the FBR was Rs110.4 million whereas he declared it to be Rs82 million through salary, agriculture, business, rental, bank and fishpond.

It said Durrani, after becoming the Sindh local bodies’ minister and then the speaker, accumulated assets and pecuniary resources through illegal means and in connivance with the others named in the reference. It stated that the named persons had committed an offence of corruption as defined in Sections 9(a)(iii)(iv)(v)(xii) and 10 of the National Accountability Ordinance.