KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Monday granted post-arrest bail to former local government secretary Roshan Ali Sheikh and two others in a case pertaining to alleged illegal allotment of 221.55 acres of land in Landhi.

The National Accountability Bureau had arrested Mr Sheikh and eight former officials of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) after the Sindh High Court dismissed their pre-arrest bail in August.

Then-LG secretary Sheikh, ex-district coordination officer of Karachi Fazal-ur-Rehman, and former officers of the defunct City District Government Karachi and revenue department Nadeem Qadir Khokhar, Mohammad Waseem, Sabahul Islam, Shahzad Khan, Sohail Yar Khan, Ahmed Ali, Mashkoor Khan and Farrukh Jamal had obtained pre-arrest bail in the NAB reference about the illegal allotment of 276 plots measuring a total of 221.55 acres and issuance of illegal challans of 121 plots of 4,000 square yards each.

On Monday, the matter came up before a division bench comprising Justice Amjad Ali Sahito and Justice Zulfiqar Sanghi, which pronounced their order on the bail petition filed by Mr Sheikh, Mr Rehman and Mr Waseem.

The court granted them post-arrest bail subject to furnishing a surety of Rs500,000 each.

NAB had alleged that the accused caused a loss to the national exchequer amounting to Rs6.22 billion and committed the offence of corruption and corrupt practices.

According to the prosecution, the KMC was given 250 acres in 1960 for shifting wool-washing tanneries on payment of malkano (government fee). However, the land was not utilised for that purpose.

It alleged that KMC officials from 2008 onward knew that neither the wool-washing tanneries scheme was established nor the plots were allotted but executed as many as 276 illegal leases from 2008 to 2015 of the said plots.

Published in Dawn, November 10th, 2020