HYDERABAD: A National Accoun­t­­ability Bureau (NAB) team on Wedn­esday visited a farmhouse of jailed Paki­stan Peoples Party leader Shar­jeel Inam Memon which he had failed to mention among his list of assets he had filed along with his nomination papers, according to family sources.

Mr Memon, also a member of Sindh Assembly, was in jail in a NAB reference about corruption in Rs5 billion worth government advertisements.

The family sources said that NAB had written a letter to Zeeshan Memon, brother-in-law of Sharjeel Memon, informing him of the visit of the property by a “technical team”.

“An individual close to the family remained present with the team throughout the visit,” said the sources.

The sources said the team measured the covered area inside the farmhouse which was named after Sharjeel’s son Rawal located off main Hyderabad-Mirpurkhas road in Rahuki near Tandojam. The NAB officials did not conduct any searches and they might search the house after seeking search warrants for the purpose, they said.

The team spent around an hour at the farmhouse which was part of a 60-acre tract of agricultural land and spread over 12-16 acres. The property’s covered area is said to be around 40,000 sq ft which the NAB team wanted to measure.

A landowner of the area who was associated with PPP said that certain portions of the farmhouse were said to be bomb and earthquake proof. It had deep basements as well. “When it was being built we didn’t realise that it will be such a grand structure,” he said.

He said the land for the farmhouse was bought by a Karachi-based PPP figure who then sold it to one of the top PPP leaders. “That leader then sold it to Sharjeel,” said a resident of the area.

Market price of agriculture land in Tandojam varies between Rs10m to Rs15m per acre.

Mr Memon had won his provincial assembly seat from this area in July 2018 general election.

Published in Dawn, June 13th, 2019