KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Friday fixed for hearing an application, seeking restoration of a petition against Pakistan Peoples Party MNA Faryal Talpur and others over alleged misappropriation of development funds for Larkana.

The petitioner Bashir Ahmed explained to the court that he had withdrawn the petition under pressure after he and his family members had to face threats but now he was willing to have the petition restored and filed an application for the purpose. He also moved another application and pleaded for urgent hearing of his plea for restoration of the petition.

A two-judge bench headed by Justice Mohammad Ali Mazhar asked Mr Ahmed why he was seeking restoration of the petition he had withdrawn earlier. The petitioner replied that he and his family members faced threats and were forced to withdraw the petition. His brother was also abducted allegedly at the behest of the respondents, apparently to compel him to quit the case, he said.

The bench allowed the petitioner’s plea for urgent hearing and fixed the application seeking restoration of the main petition for hearing on Dec 12.

The petitioner, a resident of Larkana, had moved the SHC over alleged embezzlement of funds allocated for the uplift of the city and cited as respondents PPP MNA Faryal Talpur, who is a sister of PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari, former town nazim Dr Shafqat Hussain Soomro, the then district coordination officer, deputy commissioner, project director of the Larkana development project and others.

Mr Ahmed said that besides other development schemes, Rs12 billion fund had been allocated for the development and beautification of Larkana city after 2008 general election under which roads and other development works were built without proper planning and substandard material was used because of massive corruption by the respondents.

He asked the court to order formation of a committee comprising honest town planners and technical persons to probe the misappropriation and embezzlement of public money and alleged that a total of Rs90bn were granted for the ADP schemes but hardly a few billion were spent.

Published in Dawn, December 1st, 2018