KARACHI, Feb 21: A few weeks after an anti-corruption committee approved the withdrawal of a graft case against a former director-general of the parks and horticulture department, the National Accountability Bureau moved on Thursday an application in an anti-corruption court to seek transfer of the case to an accountability court.

The former DG of the parks and horticulture department of the now defunct city district government Karachi, Liaquat Ali Qaimkhani, with his over 20 subordinates and contractors has been booked for misappropriating funds allocated for the construction of parks in 2009 and causing Rs224 million losses to the national exchequer.

All suspects were charge-sheeted in an interim report submitted in the special provincial anti-corruption court in May 2012 under Section 173 of the criminal procedure code by Investigating Officer Sajjad Ali of the anti-corruption establishment. The IO submitted a final report a few weeks ago in class C (cancel) in which he claimed that solid evidence was not collected against the suspects and the anti-corruption committee-I, headed by the chief secretary, also granted approval/recommendation for the cancellation of the case and requested the court to approve the report.

However, the NAB chairman, through a prosecutor, submitted an application under Section 16-A (a) of the National Accountability Ordinance 1999 in the provincial anti-corruption court and stated that the suspects in the case appeared to have committed grave acts of misappropriation of government funds as defined under Section 9 of the National Accountability Ordinance read with the schedule of offences thereto.

It was submitted that the objective of the NAB Ordinance was to recover the looted government money and assets from the accused, who misappropriated them through corrupt practices and misuse of powers.

NAB further contended in the plea that if the present case remained under trial before that court, there would be duplication and the looted amount could not be recovered and trial before that court would not serve the objectives of the NAB Ordinance.

Keeping in view the nature of offences and reasonable possibility of recovery through the process of plea bargain, the applicant argued that it would be proper if the said case was transferred to the administrative judge of the accountability courts in Karachi.

The two-year tenure of the last judge of the court, Rashida Asad, expired on Dec 10, 2012 and since then the post has been vacant. Thus the NAB application is likely to remain pending till the appointment of a new presiding officer. The final report of the IO regarding the cancellation of the case was also pending before the court for want of a presiding officer.

The link/in-charge judge of the provincial anti-corruption court is district and sessions judge (south) Ahmed Saba. However, a link judge can only hear such urgent matters as bail applications.

According to the interim charge-sheet submitted in May 2012, then DG Liaquat Ali Qaimkhani, XENs Iftikharullah Khan and Ameer Bux Soomro, AEE Musheer Alam, deputy director Abdul Rasheed, AEE Iftikhar Ahmed, sub-engineer Raheel Akbar of the parks and horticulture department, sub-engineer Khawaja Arif Nadeem (E&M), AEE Mohammad Shahid Ali, chief engineer (engineering design) Shahid Hussain, XENs Sikandar Ali Leghari and Mohammad Shamim, sub-engineer Tariq Bin Rasheed, DO-I Mumtaz Ali Channa, XEN Mohammad Zaman of planning and development, M/S King A.R.P Link, M/S Sumair Electric Engineer, M/S Muhammad Saleem, M/S King Super Construction, M/S Fatima Venture, M/S Faizan Electric and others were made accused of misappropriating government funds meant for construction of parks.

Besides, his alleged involvement in misappropriation of funds allocated for the Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Park and others, the ex-DG for parks and horticulture was also alleged to be involved in embezzlement of funds under different heads, including use of free seaside sand for backfilling but charging millions of rupees on the basis of fake bills, awarding contracts to his favorite contractors on higher rates, purchasing plants and equipment from preferred firms on advanced rates and gaining personal monitory benefits, it added.

A case (FIR 9/2012) was lodged under Sections 217 (public servant disobeying direction of law with intent to save persons from punishment or property from forfeiture), 218 (public servant framing incorrect record or writing with intent to save person from punishment or property from forfeiture), 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document) and 34 (with common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code read with 5(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act II against the suspects at the anti-corruption establishment. All the suspects were on bail.Nine cases (FIRs 02/09, 08/09, 10/09, 11/09, 12/09, 13/09, 14/09, 15/09 and 19/09) were lodged in the first quarter of 2009 at the anti-corruption establishment in Karachi.

The then district officer for parks and horticulture, Liaquat Ali, deputy district officer Altaf Ahsan, assistant district officers Abdul Majeed, Abdul Rasheed, Raheel, Musheer Alam, Abdul Ghafoor, Lal Mohammad and Akhlaq Ahmed of the city government, and proprietors M/S Pak electric works, King super company contractors, Parks electrics and King arplink were nominated in the FIRs on the charges of corruption. The officials and contractors were accused of misappropriating funds allocated for setting up new parks and renovation of the existing ones in different towns. However, most of the cases have been withdrawn on recommendations of the anti-corruption committee.