HYDERABAD: The judge of Hyderabad accountability court on Wednesday awarded varying jail terms with fines to 18 accused, including a former director general of the Sehwan Development Authority (SDA), in an illegal conversion case of 27 amenity plots in phase-1 of the Sindh University Employees Cooperative Housing Society through illegal revision of its layout plan.
Those who were convicted included Barkat Ali Junejo, former administrator of the society; Asghar Abbas Shaikh, former SDA DG; Imran Mehdi Memon, former managing director of the Sindh Cooperative Housing Authority; and 15 beneficiaries (all private persons) of plots.
Acquitting one accused (Shoaib Abbas) the court kept the case of absconding accused Rafique Ahmed Khoso in dormant file.
Counsel of one accused Mohammad Aamir Tunio submitted a statement mentioning that his client died in a road accident while coming to court. The court said it would verify the statement.
The court awarded seven-year imprisonment to Barkat Ali Junejo under section 10 of the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO) 1999 and imposed a fine of Rs4.79m. In case of non-payment of fine, the same shall be recovered as arrears of land revenue from him.
The court also awarded five-year imprisonment each to Asghar Abbas Shaikh and Imran Mehdi Memon under section 10 of NAO 1999 and imposed a fine of Rs500,000 each. In case of default, the same would be recovered as arrears of land revenue from them.
All the beneficiaries were awarded three-year imprisonment under section 10 of NAO 1999 and fine of Rs200,000 was imposed on each. In case of default, the same shall be recovered as arrears of land revenue from them.
The court noted that 27 plots were illegally created and layout plan of the society was revised through a no-objection certificate of the SDA dated Oct 24, 2013.
Later on a sub-lease of these plots was allowed between Sept 16 to Sept 18, 2013. Accused Barkat Ali Junejo received Rs27.794m from the beneficiaries and only Rs2.05m were deposited in the society account which was also embezzled by him. All convicted accused were present on bail and their custody was handed over to Nara prison.
Published in Dawn, January 28th, 2021
