ISLAMABAD: After highlighting alleged illegal sale of 350 acres of land at Clifton Beach in Karachi, the Transparency International-Pakistan (TI-Pak) on Friday invited attention of Supreme Court towards what it claimed a land scam in Hyderabad.

The new proposed project called “Gulshan-i-Sarmat” to be executed through the Hyderabad Development Authority (HDA) on 20,800 acres and covering an area of over 32 square miles of state land was approved by Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah on May 25 last year, claimed TI-Pak through a petition.

On Dec 16, Supreme Court stopped the Sindh government from executing a land deal of 350 acres at Clifton Beach, Karachi, as well as restraining the provincial government on Nov 26 from selling another 600 acres of mangrove-covered land on a petition moved by TI-Pak Adviser Syed Adil Gilani.

Take a look: Transparency wants probe into Karachi land scam

TI-Pak alleged that the land worth Rs400 billion was illegally allotted to a former secretary of the chief minister who now was trying to develop housing and other commercial projects on it.

On Friday Mr Gilani filed yet another petition through his counsel Hashmat Habib, alleging that many plots from the 32-square-mile area had been allotted by the Sindh government in the name of different ‘benami’ parties.

The petition argues that cost of the land is being manipulated and the entire scheme has been designed to benefit developers and builders as well as some functionaries of the Sindh government.

Citing a gazette notification by the Land Utilisation Department, Sindh, of March 29, 2006 that provides the procedure for determining the prices of land at the existing market value, Mr Gilani alleged that the Sindh government insisted on determining the prices by a committee only to keep it at low level to benefit the builders and other people in private sector at the cost to national exchequer.

In addition to the Hyderabad scheme, three summaries were prepared by the Sindh government for fresh allotment of 100 acres each adjacent to Defence Housing Authority (DHA) in Gadap Area. These lands were being allotted to three ‘benami’ firms on a back date (Oct 14, 2012) to avoid the ban imposed by Supreme Court in November last year without open bidding or auction, the petition said.

The petition also highlighted that corrupt land mafia and builders with the help of provincial government functionaries had illegally occupied different plots on housing schemes developed by the Karachi Development Authority (KDA).

For instance, the petition added, 17,000 square yards of land reserved for the central railway station in Block 13-D/2 Gulshan-i-Iqbal in Karachi has been allotted to a private person after manipulation of the revenue records.

Similarly, four acres of Karachi Municipal Committee (KMC) land between Safari Park and Aladin Amusement Park were allotted at a throwaway price in 2012 to an individual by tampering revenue records.

A complaint about selling 245 acres of amenity plot reserved for the Sports Complex Landhi is pending with NAB Sindh which was dispatch on Dec 30 last year, the petition said.

The petitioner requested indulgence of Supreme Court with a request to order stringent action against those responsible for proposing and processing the allotment of the plots also highlighting that TI-Pak was striving to weed out corruption from the society.

Published in Dawn, February 7th, 2015

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