KARACHI: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Tuesday arrested a former chief of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board, who is also a retired senior officer of the Pakistan Army, for allegedly awarding possession of 25-acre illegally allotted land to a few people that caused a loss of Rs25 billion to the exchequer.

A spokesman for the NAB-Karachi said in a statement that retired Brigadier Iftikhar Haider, the then KWSB MD, was arrested in Rawalpindi.

The statement said that the major development came during a series of raids conducted in Karachi and Rawalpindi in which three persons wanted in a land scam case were arrested.

It identified the other two suspects as Syed Omar Ahmed and Shahid Rasool, who were taken into custody in Karachi.

“The accused were wanted in an investigation for illegal allotment of 25 acres government land of the Evacuee Property Trust Board located at Deh Okewari which is claimed by the KWSB,” the statement said, adding: “The said land was illegally allotted by accused Gul Hassan Channa, the then secretary [RS&EB] of the Sindh board of revenue.”

Only last week, the anti-graft body had announced that it had retrieved 10,000 acres of grabbed state land off Superhighway where some major housing schemes had been launched in connivance with revenue officials.

On the basis of the established “irrefutable evidence”, NAB has got more than 10,000 acres of state land, usurped by the land mafia, cancelled by the revenue authorities of Jamshoro district.

The arrest of former top KWSB man and beneficiaries of the scam suggested more action on these lines very soon and that the bureau’s activities are gathering pace in Sindh.

The NAB statement said that the former Brig Haider played a key role in the land scam and facilitated the process through his office.

Warrants issued for arrest of 12

An accountability court has issued non-bailable warrants for the arrest of nearly a dozen absconding suspects in a case pertaining to alleged corruption of Rs11.733 billion through illegal allotment of land belonging to the Karachi Port Trust Officers Cooperative Housing Society in Karachi.

The accountability court-II judge also directed the investigating officer to arrest and produce absconders on May 31 in court.

It also summoned 10 other suspects, who had obtained pre-arrest bail, to appear on the next date.

The national accountability bureau had filed a reference against the office-bearers of the KPT Officers Cooperative Housing Society and private persons alleging that they were involved in illegal allotment of 16 plots of the society located on Mai Kolachi Road in Karachi.

In the reference, the federal anti-graft watchdog named the society’s chairman Ahmed Pervez Younusi, secretary Gulab Khan among 23 officers, including the private persons.

It claimed that the land was illegally allotted with the connivance of the society’s management, causing losses worth Rs11.733 billion to the national exchequer. The society’s chairman Ahmed Pervez Younusi was already in the custody of NAB, while 10 others had obtained bail before arrest, it added.

Published in Dawn, May 30th, 2018