KARACHI, Oct 17: Officials of the market committee of the New Sabzi Mandi, charged in a land scam involving millions of rupees, will appear in the court of the special judge for anti-corruption on Oct 25 for the confirmation of their interim bail.

Accused Ghulam Nabi Chakrani, administrator of the market committee, Naeem Ahmed Korejo, director-general of the Agriculture Extension, government of Sindh; Saeed-ul-Hassan Zaidi, secretary of the market committee, and Ashiq Hussein, section officer of the PMP agriculture department, government of Sindh; were granted pre-arrest bail by a link court of the district and sessions judge, Innam-ur-Rehman of the Labour Court, on Oct 11.

The court directed the accused to appear on the next day of hearing before the special judge for anti-corruption, Syed Gul Munir Shah, who is on leave.

According to the prosecution, the case was registered on the basis of an inquiry into a complaint (249/07) of the anti-corruption establishment.

The accused are stated to have converted 164 amenity plots into shops. The plots were reserved in the master plan for a fire station, weighbridge, service station and lavatories.

During the inquiry, a raid was conducted on July 19 on the office of the market committee in Gulshan-i-Iqbal and the relevant record was seized.

The record showed that the accused had acted without permission of the competent authority and in violation of the approved layout plan for the MPGO.

According to the prosecution, the allottees of Block AF-1, created on amenity plots, and representatives of Nazir Khan, Gul Shah and Asmatullah appeared before the inquiry team and alleged that they had paid Rs7 million to Ghulam Nabi for the allotment of the plots.