KARACHI, June 1: An accountability court on Friday rejected the appeal of the relatives of a former secretary of the Board of Revenue, Khan Mohammad Mehar, upholding the decision of another accountability court regarding the confiscation of his unnamed property worth billions of rupees.

In 2001, the Accountability Court No 3 sentenced the former secretary to 10 years in jail and fined him Rs100 million. He was also awarded two-and-a-half years’ imprisonment, while he was declared ineligible for government service for 21 years. The confiscation of his property registered under the names of his relatives was also ordered.

The appeal was earlier submitted to the Sindh High Court, which referred it to the Accountability Court No 1. According to the court, the former secretary owned agricultural land in Mirpurkhas, Sanghar, Jurji and Malir, along with many acres of industrial and commercial plots across Karachi, including Malir and Lyari. Besides, he is said to have a bungalow in Mirpurkhas, two bungalows in Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Block 17, and various bungalows in Karachi’s DHA. It was reported that in 1987 when he joined the government service, he had very limited agriculture land.