PESHAWAR: A press release issued by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) claimed the arrest of four members of the Provincial Revenue Ministry in an illegal land transfer case.

Ex-Provincial Minister for Revenue Syed Murid Kazim, Revenue & Estate District Officers Qayyum Nawaz and Riaz Muhammad, and Assistant Provincial Board of Revenue Department Gul Hassan were arrested on charges of corruption and the misuse of authority in order to illegally transfer valuable state land.

Around 1,976 kanals of land in Dera Ismail Khan was allocated to the Naval Families Rehabilitation Organization (NFRO) in 2010. Moreover, 182 kanals of the land were subsequently unlawfully transferred to the accused officials.

In 2009 the director of NFRO Bahawalpur sent an application stating that about 1,976 kanals land allotted to Pakistan Navy was not cultivable.

The director therefore asked for the uncultivable land to be exchanged with better and cultivable land.

As per rules, the allotment of alternate land can only be done with permission of the province’s Chief Minister.

However, Provincial Revenue Minister Murid Kazim overstepped his authority and directed the Board of Revenue KP to put up a notice for the allotment of alternate land to NFRO Bahawalpur and illegally gave approval for the transfer of 1976 kanals of land to the organization.

Riaz Muhammad included valuable commercial and residential properties in the proposal, which were later allotted to the accused.

Murid Kazim was allotted 50 kanals in the name of his close associate Syed Atta Hussain Shah.

Similarly, accused Gul Hassan got 33 kanals in DI Khan and Qayyum Nawaz got 4 kanals and 3 marlas in the heart of DI Khan.

Another 100 kanals of land worth millions of rupees have already been recovered as a voluntary return by NAB and has been transferred to the government of KP.

The accused will be produced before the Accountability Court in order to obtain their physical remand so as to proceed further as per law.

Read more: NAB recovered Rs2.95bn dirty money in KP since 1999, says DG