KARACHI: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has arrested 14 accused person after the Sindh High Court (SHC) cancelled their interim bails.
The accused persons were arrested on the charges of land grabbing of 23 amenity plots in Gulistan-e-Johar and converting them illegally into 296 residential plots, causing Rs1.5 billion loss to the national exchequer.
All the arrested accused persons were officials of Karachi Development Authority (KDA) working in different capacities.
The Karachi Metropolitan Corporation’s (KMC) documents disclosed that the land mafia has illegally occupied eight major parks of the city worth billions of rupees.
According to the documents, Hill Park Aziz Bhatti Park, Jheel Park, and City Parks were some of those parks that the mafia occupied in recent years.
Meanwhile, in a report presented to the Supreme Court last month, the KDA had disclosed that thousands of square yards of amenity plots in the metropolis had been occupied.
Further, the KDA claimed that illegal constructions in 27 different areas had been bulldozed by the authority within two days.
However, local media reported that land grabbers sold lands in Surjani Town, Korangi, North Karachi, North Nazimabad, Gulshan Town and Nazimabad illegally to KDA which were worth more than Rs1 trillion.
The Supreme Court ordered KDA and Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) authorities last month to clear as many 35,000 amenity spaces from encroachments within two months.
The judges also told them to ensure that those plots that had been illegally sold through China-cutting are retrieved from the encroachers at any cost. The court also sought a report with respect to a wall built in front of the city’s iconic Mohatta Palace.
Following the orders, KDA launched a full-fledged operation to retrieve illegally occupied land.
