KARACHI: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Saturday filed another reference against a former director general and seven other officers of the Karachi Development Authority over alleged illegal allotment of plots.

The then KDA DG, Syed Nasir Abbas, then additional director (auction, land) Khalid Zafar Hashmi, then additional director (admin, land) Saleem Ahmed Zahid and five other former key officers, Syed Fazil Ahmed Bukhari, Syed Iftikharul Hassan, Irfan Khan Yousufzai, Nadeem Ahmed Siddiqui and Syed Farzand Ali, have been mentioned as accused in the reference.

The administrative judge of the accountability courts, Dr Sher Bano Karim, admitted the reference on Saturday and transferred the same to the accountability court-IV for further proceedings.

In the reference, it was mentioned that an inquiry against the officers and officials of the KDA regarding auction of 137 commercial plots in Gulistan-i-Jauhar was conducted by the KDA on March 7 and 10, 2017.

However, the reference stated that the bids were shown to have been received for 85 plots, adding that the auction of 67 plots took place on the first date and 18 on the second. Out of 85, the bids for 19 were recommended for rejection/forfeiture and the bid for one plot was shown as a court case while the remaining 65 were recommended for approval, it added.

It stated that the minutes of the said auction were signed and issued by the auction committee, comprising eight officers named in the reference, who had allegedly disposed of/allotted 13 plots — measuring from 400 square yards to 1,380 square yards — located in Gulistan-i-Jauhar’s Block-6, North Karachi’s Sector 5-D, Surjani Town’s Sector 8 and Korangi’s blocks 12-A and 12-B through the said auction proceedings as no bids were called or received from the public, which was evident from the statements of the prosecution witnesses and the bid registrar.

It further mentioned that an investigation revealed that the KDA governing body — comprising then local government minister Jam Khan Shoro as its chairman, then KDA DG Syed Nasir Abbas as its secretary, then LG secretary Mohammad Ramzan Awan and then two MPAs Jawaid Nagori and Mohammad Sajid Jokhio as its members — in its meeting held in the office of Mr Shoro on May 3, 2017 had approved the recommendations of the auction committee.

Therefore, it was established that under the garb of the open public auction 13 plots were illegally disposed of/allotted by the accused persons in connivance with one another by misusing their authority although the claims regarding those plots were later withdrawn by the so-called allottees.

The anti-graft watchdog maintained that the investigation against former LG minister Shoro and former LG secretary Awan was continuing and a supplementary reference would be filed if any incriminating material came on record against them or any other accused.

Published in Dawn, April 7th, 2019