KARACHI, Oct 31: Special Judge Anti-Corruption Karachi Syed Gul Munir Shah on Wednesday adjourned till November 14 the hearing of a corruption case against the officials of the market committee of the New Sabzi Mandi due to a change in the panel of defence lawyers.
Prior to any arguments the defence counsel of accused Ghulam Nabi Chakrani submitted an application to the court stating that he had not yet studied the case and needed some time for the purpose.
The administrator of the market committee Ghulam Nabi Chakrani, the secretary of the market committee Saeed-ul-Hassan Zaidi, the director-general of the Sindh government’s agriculture extension Naeem Ahmed Korejo, and Ashiq Hussein, a section officer of the PMP, agriculture department, government of Sindh, are facing charges in the land scam that involved millions of rupees.
The market committee officials, who were present in court, had been granted interim bail by a link court of District and Sessions Judge Inam-ur-Rehman of the labour court on Oct 11. The period of their interim bail was also extended to Nov 14 on Wednesday.
The court had directed Investigation Officer Chaudhry Hamidullah at the previous hearing (on Oct 25) to ensure the production of the required land record and maps of the New Sabzi Mandi at the next hearing.
The Technical Officer of the Anti-Corruption Establishment was directed to appear in court in order to answer technical queries about the land scam case. Following the court’s directives the technical officer Hafiz Safdar appeared in court with the relevant documents.
The Technical Officer of the Karachi Building Control Authority, Mohammad Awais, was also present in the courtroom to explain the queries, if any.
According to the prosecution, the case was registered on the basis of an inquiry into a complaint (No 249/07) of the anti-corruption establishment. The men are accused of having converted 164 amenity plots into shops.
Under the Karachi master plan, these plots had been reserved for a fire station, a service station, a weighbridge 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.
It showed that the accused acted without the permission of the competent authority and in violation of the approved layout plan.
Defence counsel Irfan Tirmizi argued that his clients had done nothing wrong since land allotment was the duty of a high-powered committee and the accused were merely signing authorities.
The Assistant Director, Anti-Corruption, as state’s counsel Sikandar Ahsan and Chaudhry Hamidullah also appeared in the case.