NAB to file corruption reference against former CS, SHC told

KARACHI: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Thursday informed the Sindh High Court (SHC) that a corruption reference will be filed against former Sindh chief secretary Muhammad Siddique Memon and others for causing a loss of millions of rupees to the national exchequer through illegal land allotments.

Memon is currently on bail to avoid his possible arrest as NAB investigates corruption charges against him and others for allegedly allotting six acres of land illegally in Karachi in 1992 when he was the land utilization secretary.

He had obtained the bail in August 2015 after NAB served him a call notice for the investigation against him. The bureau had maintained that there was sufficient incriminating material against the chief secretary and there was reasonable ground to believe that he was guilty of the offences, punishable under the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO), 1999.

In Thursday’s hearing, NAB authorities informed the judges that the inquiry had been completed against the former chief secretary and the reference was sent to NAB chairman Justice (R) Javed Iqbal for approval. The court was informed that the reference will be filed in the accountability court once it was approved by the chairman.

However, the court put off the hearing until March 22.

On the other hand, the ex-bureaucrat denied the charges and submitted through his lawyers that the land was allotted in 1992 and regularized in 2008 under the relevant laws. The lawyer submitted that the land was neither allotted by Memon nor was regularized by him.

He said that Memon was posted as secretary land utilization and when certain facts came to his knowledge, he sent the matter to the land committee which said it had already regularized the land. “I never misused my powers, neither allotted nor regularized the said land, therefore I should be freed from the charges,” pleaded Memon.