KARACHI: An accountability court on Tuesday acquitted a former bureaucrat and another person in a land scam case.

Former land utilization secretary Ghulam Mustafa Phul and Abdul Malik Chandio were charged with fraud and misrepresentation to encroach over 40 acres of land in Gadap Town, which was already notified as a rural area, and then selling it to general public in 2008.

According to the prosecution, Chandio wrote a letter to the chief minister requesting lease of Haji Malik Goth which was approved and the CM secretariat directed the revenue minister and the Senior Member Board of Revenue (SMBR) to process a summary to regularise the village.

It added that Chandio purposely encroached upon the government land measuring 43 acres and sold various plots, houses and shops to the general public without any rightful ownership.

NAB filed a case against the accused for causing Rs66.8m loss to exchequer

It charged Phul with processing a mala fide summary to regularise the land under the Statement of Condition for Regularization of Village which was not applicable to rural areas.

It said that the summary sent to the CM by Phul was based on misrepresentation and concealment of facts as the necessary prerequisite and procedures were not completed, while information to this effect was already conveyed to him by the field officer.

It added that after the National Accountability Bureau took cognizance of the matter, Phul initiated another summary for cancellation of regularisation of the land in order to prevent legal action against him.

The court had indicted both the accused in 2017 on the charge that they in collusion with each other committed various acts of commission and omission which resulted into heavy loss of Rs66.8 million to the national exchequer.

During the trial, the NAB, however, could not prove the charge and the accountability court exonerated both the accused for lack of evidence.

Published in Dawn, October 7th, 2020