KARACHI: Two private guards sit under a shade in an otherwise empty street on Creek Lane-3 of Phase VII in Defence Housing Authority (DHA) around Friday noon. The two guards were among the many others who were recently questioned by security forces to identify a beige house on the street.

Not bearing a number, as it was bought recently, the house belongs to now suspended Balochistan finance secretary Mushtaq Raisani.

Almost six days back, the beige house became the centre of commotion as, one after another, six cars, bearing government number plates, three police mobile vans and an armoured personnel carrier, were parked in the street. The officials belonged to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), currently on an anti-corruption drive in the city.

According to witnesses, the officers went straight into the house. They also asked a few questions from the private guards posted outside other homes “just to fulfil official formalities”.

One of the guards, who came forward to speak about the search operation by NAB, said the officials took a Mercedes with them. “There were no guards posted here earlier, so the officers questioned us. They didn’t take anyone into custody and left after asking a few questions, as it seemed they had confirmed information on their own,” the guard added.

Confirming, NAB officer Zameer Ahmad Abbasi said that a Mercedes Benz (2012 model), recovered from the Phase VII residence, and a Honda City, recovered from another one in Phase VI, were taken into custody by the officers. “We kept the two cars at our NAB headquarters near the Cantt railway station and it will soon be sent to Quetta,” he added.

At the moment, the Quetta NAB is spearheading investigation into the corruption scandal involving the suspended finance secretary of Balochistan as well as ex-adviser Mir Khalid Langov.

It all began in May, when NAB recovered Rs730 million from Raisani’s residence in Quetta after arresting him on May 6. The NAB office in Karachi is working as a “facilitating unit”, as an officer added, to find more of such properties and then hand over any material found to the Quetta HQ.

Though it was reported that around 12 houses have been found in Karachi’s DHA, a focal person of the NAB director general from Quetta rejected the claim. Speaking to Dawn, he said the bureau “raided five houses belonging to Saleem Shah, arrested on the charge of holding dual posts of municipality in Khaliqabad and Machh Bolan, ex-adviser Khalid Langov and secretary finance Mushtaq Raisani in Karachi’s DHA Phase V, VI, VII and VIII. The houses are not in one place, rather in a cluster of two to three in all the phases I mentioned earlier.” He added that not all the houses belonged to Raisani, as “he obviously made sure that he did not buy them in his own name. So, we are on the lookout for further tip-offs to ascertain facts we are receiving from key witnesses and the suspects we earlier arrested.” He said that there might be more revelations in the case.

The focal person also confirmed the recovery of a Mercedes and a Honda City, and added that they found a large cache of documents from the house, which he didn’t speak about much. According to sources, the documents include prize bonds and property papers which the officers are still looking into to confirm their authenticity.

Another NAB officer said the property was found based on the admissions made by Saleem Shah. It was followed by a raid at Khalid Langov’s home in Phase VIII and investigation into the property held by Raisani. The NAB officer said even the officers were not sure about how many houses they’d find. “They ended up locating and padlocking 12 homes and are investigating whether all of them belong to Raisani or if there are other actors involved as well,” the officer added.

Situated in Khayaban-i-Iqbal on Street 20, curtains are drawn at Langov’s house, which was sealed by NAB a week back. The house was bought earlier this year, one of the neighbours told Dawn. He said the residents were already disturbed by the guards sitting outside Langov’s home whenever he visited. “The presence of his guards caused a lot of arguments between them and other residents. Almost everyone in this phase has acquired the services of private security guards. But in their case, the guards used to sit outside and ogle at every woman passing by resulting in complaints which went unheard,” added the neighbour, living a few homes from Langov’s sealed home.

The DHA administration was completely clueless when asked about the houses found within their territory.

DHA spokesperson Major Aurangzeb said: “NAB carried out the raids without consulting the DHA.We have no information about the houses or its ownership.”

While acknowledging that the houses were raided in connection with the corruption case involving Raisani, Karachi DHA secretary retired Brig Naeem Azhar, however, said the “authorisation of the houses must have been done by the Sindh revenue department, as the DHA has nothing to do with it.”

Published in Dawn, June 26th, 2016