KARACHI: Sindh High Court (SHC) Chief Justice Ahmed Ali Shaikh expressed dissatisfaction with the performance of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in a case pertaining to the use of forged documents for the construction of Ahsanabad Society.
The court was hearing the bail pleas of two accused, Zulfiqar and Majeed, who were both granted bail against a surety of Rs1 million each.
The CJ expressed discontentment over the NAB Investigation Officer (IO). “When did you become the IO? What is your qualification,” questioned CJ Shaikh. The NAB official replied that he had joined the department in 2017.
“What do you know about the law? You do not even know about the SHC’s judgment,” CJ Shaikh remarked.
The court also expressed anger at the NAB prosecutor Riaz Alam in the case.
Illegal allotment case
The same bench sought arguments from the counsels for the accused, including former Karachi city mayor and chief of the Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) Mustafa Kamal, in a case pertaining to the illegal allotment of state land located in Clifton block 3.
The bench, headed by the CJ Shaikh, heard the joint pleas of the accused persons in the case. It ordered the concerned authorities to return the passport of a builder, Muhammad Dawood. The counsel of Dawood, Hyder Waheed, said that his client wanted to go out of Pakistan for medical treatment.
The bench inquired that if the treatment was possible in the country. Referring to the Supreme Court’s orders, the counsel said that a person’s passport could not be seized if their name was not on the Exit Control List.
According to the reference filed in the National Accountability Bureau, Sindh Building Control Authority Director-General Iftikhar Qaimkhani, Fazul-ur-Rehman, Mumtaz Hyder, Nazir Zardari and others were also involved in the alleged illegal allotment. It said that the land was allotted to hawkers and the shopkeepers in 1980 and was later taken by the builders on lease in 2005. The accused persons in the case have inflicted a loss of over Rs2.5 billion to the national exchequer.
The court adjourned the hearing till September 4.
