January 03, 2008	Thursday	Zilhaj 23, 1428

KARACHI, Jan 2: The Accountability Court-I on Wednesday adjourned till Jan 15 the hearing of a reference pertaining to a land scam against a deputy inspector general (DIG) of Sindh, Altaf Hussain Bhatti, and others.

The judge, Syed Aley Maqbool Rizvi, reissued the non-bailable warrants for the arrest of 10 persons nominated as accused in the case and directed the National Accountability Bureau (Sindh) to produce them in court on the next date of hearing.

The NAB had arrested the DIG on Dec 4, 2007 and accused him of misusing his authority to acquire more than 500 acres of government land in Thatta district. The court gave the DIG in jail custody and on Dec 5, it issued non-bailable warrants for the arrest of other accused.

In the NAB reference (No 59/2007), the DIG has been accused of transferring the land in the shape of small plots to fake buyers and later on getting them allotted to himself, his family members and other relatives.

Meanwhile, the Accountability Court-II, headed by Sadiq Hussain Bhatti, adjourned the hearing of a NAB reference (27/2003) against M.B. Abbasi (a former chairman of the National Development Financial Corporation), Sadaruddin Ganji and Hashim Ganji till Jan 15.

The investigation officer of the reference submitted to the court a report under Section 88 of the CrPC regarding the arrest of the accused.

According to the reference, the NDFC had approved Rs40 million in favour of M/s West Pakistan Tanks Terminal (Pvt) Ltd as trade finance facility in 1994. Subsequently, the facility was converted into working capital funds for the purchase of molasses for export and was disbursed in Jan 1995.

M.B. Abbasi, the then NDFC chairman, in association with the sponsors, Sadaruddin Ganji, his son, Hashim Sadaruddin Ganji, Dawood and Sajid Ali of M/s West Pakistan Tanks Terminal, committed numerous procedural and processing irregularities while granting the aforesaid financial facilities, the NAB reference claimed.

The NDFC itself made inquiries into the matter and requested for legal action since the loan amount was still outstanding. An FIR (40/1997) was registered against the accused in July 1997.

The court declared M.B. Abbasi, Hashim Sadaruddin Ganji, Dawood and Sajid Ali as absconders while Sadaruddin Ganji was released on bail.

Meanwhile, the same court adjourned till Jan 15 the hearing of another NAB reference (12/2007) filed against Sadaruddin Ganji and Hashim Ganji due to the absence of the special prosecutor and the defence counsel.

According to the reference, the accused availed financial facilities from the Allied Bank in 1996 in the form of L/C for the import of palm oil and failed to repay the amount.

The court also adjourned till Jan 9 the hearing of a NAB reference (No.24/2002) due to the absence of an accused, Khalid Masood.

According to prosecution, accused Agha Tariq (deceased), the then Sindh minister of industries and mineral resources, conceived a plan to grab valuable state-owned land in Malir district.

The accused dishonestly and fraudulently moved an application through his wife, Ms Gulnar Begum, in 1995 and in connivance with other accused, procured an a licence for the excavation of minerals on a 30-year lease. The land sought to be leased out measured 341.68 acres.

In August 1995, Ms Gulnar Begum moved an application to the then chief minister Syed Abdullah Shah (deceased) and got the lease period converted to 99 years and the land’s status to residential/commercial/industrial.

The application was processed by Ali Sher Shaikh, the then secretary land utilization, Board of Revenue. He submitted a distorted summary in connivance with other accused to get the lease and status converted.