HYDERABAD: Sindh High Court’s Hyderabad circuit bench has ruled that all five petitioners/accused have played a role in the whole transaction of a government land and fraudulently increased the original area of the Hyderabad Railway Employees Cooperative Housing Society (HRECHS) from 10.051 acres to 19.34 acres in deh Giddu Bandar through a fake entry.

Through a revised layout plan, they also sold (4.02 acres) of the land belonging to the now defunct taluka municipal administration of Latifabad in the shape of plots, the bench ruled.

The bench comprising justices Mohammad Iqbal Kalhoro and Fahim Ahmed Siddiqui issued detailed judgement on Friday in respect of five petitions filed by two senior officers of the Hyderabad Development Authority (HDA), Sindh Cooperative Housing Authority (SCHA) and HRECHS chairman and administrator.

Earlier, the bench had granted pre-arrest bail to the petitioners in a National Accountability Bureau (NAB) reference.

According to the judgement, the petitioners are not entitled to extraordinary concession of pre-arrest bail, therefore, the bail granted to them earlier is recalled.

“These are the reasons of its [the bench’s] April 10 short order whereby their five petitions were dismissed.”

The judgement said that the SHC had mandated Abdul Sattar Laghari, as administrator, to hold an inquiry and cancel allotment of the plots unlawfully granted by the society’s management. But on the contrary, he executed six subleases in violation of the SHC order. He did not approach the SHC before subleasing the plots as per a lower court’s order. He did not call for filing appeals against the judgement and decrees regarding subleased plots, thus his collusion could not be ruled out.

About the role of petitioner Naveed Zarar Khan, as the SCHA managing director, the judgement said his connivance could not be ruled out in the offence because he granted permission to the then HRECHS administrator to get approved a revised layout plan with additional area.

It said HDA officer Mohammad Iqbal Memon dissented with HDA officer Mohammad Bashir, who suspected that the revised layout plan was fake and presented a note on Sept 24, 2011.

When the matter was placed before co-accused Ghulam Mohammad Qaimkhani, the then HDA director general, he expressed his surprise by observing: “How did it happen? It should be 19 acres and 38 ghuntas only”.

The judgement said Mohammad Bashir suspended the layout plan till its verification by Iqbal Memon, who knew relevant facts restored the revised layout plan on Oct 4, 2011 which led to disposal of precious government land illegally by then chairman of the society.

The bench noted that it was essentially HDA officer Shahid Pervez Memon’s note dated July 23, 2010 that paved the way for approval of the revised layout plan and disposal of land fraudulently.

It observed that neither the minutes of HDA governing body meeting referred by Shahid Pervez Memon could be found nor could he produce the same in the investigation.

The bench said Shahid Pervez was required to verify the site, boundaries, area and ownership of the land reflected in the layout plan but he failed, therefore, his complicity could not be ruled out.

About argument of petitioners’ counsel regarding rule of consistency that co-accused Ghulam Mohammad Qaimkhani was granted post-arrest bail, the bench noted that his case appeared to be different from petitioners. It said there was nothing on record to show that the petitioners were implicated in this case by NAB with mala fide intention.

Published in Dawn, April 21st, 2019