ISLAMABAD: The accountability court of Islamabad on Friday remanded a senior official of the Sindh government in custody of the National Accoun­tability Bureau (NAB) for 13 days in a case pertaining to illegal allotment of land.

Aftab Ahmed Memon, secretary of the Land Utilisation Department of Sindh Board of Revenue and reportedly a close aide to former president and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari, was arrested by NAB on Thursday after warrants for his arrest were issued on Wednesday.

NAB sought 14-day physical remand of Mr Memon to investigate his alleged involvement in the illegal allotment of land. The court, however, approved a 13-day physical remand of the suspect.

The bureau has accused Mr Memon of illegally allotting land and misusing his powers. It alleged that Mr Memon had illegally allotted 17 acres of land in the KDA Scheme and caused a loss of Rs800 million to the national exchequer.

The bureau stated that Mr Memon was arrested after an investigation into the alleged misuse of authority. He is suspected of having illegally allotted government land in favour of M/S Pink Residency and others.

Sindh govt’s senior official facing case pertaining to illegal allotment of land

NAB alleged that Mr Memon “in connivance and collaboration” with other members of the Sindh Government Lands Committee, committed offences that fall under Section 9 of the NAB Ordinance, 1999, that is related to corruption and corrupt practices.

Mr Memon has been accused of allotting seven acres of land situated in Sector 40, Scheme-33 of Karachi’s Malir district from Sector 31 and 47, Scheme-33 of Karachi’s East district.

According to NAB, Mr Memon was being investigated since 2016.

The NAB prosecutor argued before the accountability court that the accused had concealed the record and the bureau required his custody to investigate him and recover the relevant record.

During the court’s proceeding, Mr Memon pleaded before the court that he was being singled out. He accused NAB of victimising him.

Accountability judge Mohammad Bashir allowed the accused to speak at the rostrum. The judge remarked sarcastically that “if we don’t allow him to speak his mind he will fall ill”.

The judge then inquired from the NAB prosecutor whether Mr Memon was the sole accused in this case or the bureau was determining the role of some other KDA officials for illegal allotments.

The prosecutor conceded before the court that there were some other members of the committee that approved the above said allotments. He, however, informed the court that the bureau was investigating the other suspects as well.

The counsel for Mr Memon opposed the physical remand of his client. He apprised the court that there were several members of the allotment committee and NAB did not arrest any other person except Mr Memon.

He said that Mr Memon could not make the allotment on his own, adding that the law secretary, who was also a member of the said committee, was not nominated as a suspect in this case.

However, as the court approved the 13-day remand of Mr Memon, the counsel requested the court to allow the suspect to meet his relatives and lawyers while in custody.

The prosecutor objected and said an under-custody suspect could not meet anyone while being on physical remand.

The judge permitted blood relatives to meet the suspect and asked the lawyers to file an application before the court if they wanted to visit the suspect during the physical remand.

Published in Dawn, March 9th, 2019