June 05, 2008	Thursday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 30, 1429

KARACHI, June 4: An accountability court on Wednesday deferred till June 6 its judgment on an acquittal plea moved by the private parties nominated as accused along with some government officials in a land misappropriation case. The reference was filed by the National Accountability Bureau.

Judge Syed Aley Maqbool Rizvi of the Accountability Court-1, who had reserved his judgment in the previous proceedings, was to pronounce his verdict on Wednesday (June 4) but deferred it to due some technical reasons.

The court has already allowed an application under the National Reconciliation Order (NRO) and acquitted R. B. Rahoo, Khan Mohammad Qureshi, Ghulam Abbas Soomro and Ramesh M. Odashi since they were holders of public offices.

The private parties, Adam Khan Jokhio, Fazal Hussain Shah and others, had moved an acquittal application under Section 265-K of CrPC.The reference (No.8/07) said that the accused were involved in an illegal transfer and subsequent allotment of about 75 acres of land adjacent to Mai Kolachi Road to certain private parties. The records showed that the land belonged to the KPT and was meant for development. No payment against the land value was made to the KPT by the provincial government.

The reference stated that the piece of land was fraudulently sold out to some private parties at a throwaway price,

Former speaker of the Sindh Assembly Syed Muzaffar Hussain Shah was also nominated in the FIR on the grounds that the illegal allotments had been effected by his approval. However, during the proceedings of the reference, he was found clear and the court acquitted him. The case was lodged in 1996.

Durrani visits courts

Sindh Minister for Local Government Agha Siraj Durrani visited the City Courts and met Karachi Bar Association leaders on Wednesday. He inquired about the problems being faced by lawyers.

Later, the minister directed KWSB to resolve the water and sewerage problem at the City Courts within a month. He also assured the lawyers that an inquiry would be held into the delay in the release of the annual grant for KBA library and that action would be taken against those responsible.