KARACHI: A review meeting was held at the National Accountability Bureau’s Karachi office on Monday under the chairmanship of Director General Mohammad Altaf Bawany in which progress in ongoing investigations was reviewed.
The spokesman said that with regard to the cases related to land scams/frauds, several cases were discussed. The DG was told that several such cases had been matured and soon after the completion of investigative work, references would be filed after approval of the competent authority.
He was further informed that in one such case of illegal allotment of land measuring 5,222 acres located in District Thatta for cattle farming against an amount of Rs15 million to Nasser Abdullah Lootah, the investigative work was in an advanced stage and it would be submitted to the competent authority soon along with the recommendations of the investigating team.
The allotment of land to Nasser Abdullah Lootah contained serious illegalities, which caused losses of millions of rupees to the national exchequer. Regarding the same individual, the review meeting also took under consideration the case initiated on the allegation of illegal allotment of two acres of land in exchange of 15 acres of land in Gulshan-e-Iqbal to Nasser Abdullah Lootah against the non-payment of occupancy value at Deh Okewari.
On this matter, it was brought to the notice of the review board that such allegations in the complaint regarding the non-payment of occupancy value and exchange were not proved against the alleged person, as the land was a fresh allotment by the Land Utilisation Department, Government of Sindh, and was made against an amount of Rs3.87 million in lieu of occupancy value.
With regard to 30 acres of land located near Alladin Park, it was brought to the notice of the review board that another inquiry into five acres allotted to Wasif Qavi was under process, in which findings were being compiled.
The NAB director general issued instructions to the investigating teams to conclude the cases as per law in line with the directions of Chairman NAB Justice Javed Iqbal. On May 3, NAB had authorised six investigations. The spokesman for the anti-corruption watchdog’s Karachi office said a regional board meeting (RBM) was held at the NAB office under the chairmanship of the director general of the bureau in Karachi. The meeting was attended by the directors of three investigation wings with investigation teams working on the six cases as well as the legal wing and experts.
The meeting approved investigations against officers of the revenue department for making fake and forged entries in the revenue record, with respect to Deh Songal, Scheme-33, Karachi, which involve 75 acres of precious government land.
The revenue officials, prima facie, in connivance with private persons, maintained the bogus entries with respect to state land in order to illegally favour certain private individuals, by showing the entries as maintained in 1970s, by way of forgery, the spokesman said in a statement.
The investigation against the revenue authorities of District Hyderabad will look into the findings established through an earlier inquiry regarding the illegal sale of an amenity plot, which was a municipal playground (government land) located on a main road of Hyderabad.
Revenue officials, in connivance with two private persons, Allah Dino Khokhar and Allahuddin Samoo, managed the sale of eight acres of the amenity plot to the private persons on the basis of bogus revenue documents.
The matter was recommended to the NAB headquarters, Islamabad, for conversion into an investigation against one Shehzad Yousuf and his accomplices on the charges of cheating public at large. The accused, Shehzad Yousuf, was arrested and remanded to NAB Karachi on March 17, 2018.
The accused had been impersonating and falsely presenting himself as assistant director of NAB under various names and used to extort money from various persons on the false promise of getting them relief in bogus cases. He thus blackmailed several innocent persons and government officials, particularly of the local government departments of Punjab and Sindh. Several complainants have recorded their statements and submitted their claims of Rs13 million defrauded by the accused.
