NO land grab takes place without the collusion of the bureaucracy and the backing of powerful lobbies. In the case of a land grab the size of Bahria Town Karachi — now sprawling over more than 30,000 acres in the city’s Malir district — which has displaced or adversely affected scores of indigenous communities, there has been a particularly malign nexus at play. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court which has taken up a petition seeking review of its damning May 4 verdict in the Bahria Town Karachi case, asked some very relevant questions. These pertained mainly to the political connections of Bahria Town’s top executives and the manner in which the Sindh government handed over prime state land along the Superhighway to a private developer. The five-member bench also alluded to the possibility of referring the matter to NAB in order to determine who was responsible for the transfer. In June, the apex court had asked the accountability body to suspend all ongoing investigations against Bahria during the hearing of the review petition.

That said, it seems only prodding by the Supreme Court every now and then can get NAB to investigate what is corruption on a massive scale by public functionaries in Sindh. In a brazen abuse of power, provincial legislators amended the relevant law to circumvent the court’s order of November 2012 banning the transfer or mutation of any state land in Sindh. Then, regulations directly contradicting the original legislation were framed to facilitate the land grab. The apex court has several times directed NAB to do the needful; indeed, on May 24, 2016, it listed 13 specific questions it wanted the accountability body’s inquiry to answer. As a result, some incriminating evidence of malfeasance did come to light. In May, NAB said it had “irrefutable evidence” that the land has been illegally transferred. In fact, by now the various aspects that make up the entire sordid saga are there for all to see. The question is: will NAB go the entire distance?

Published in Dawn, September 17th, 2018