KARACHI, April 2: An accountability court on Wednesday acquitted the former employees of Karachi Port Trust and land utilisation department in a land scam case under the National Reconciliation Ordinance, 2007.

Earlier, the accused submitted an application in court through their counsel for acquittal from the case under Section VII of the NRO.

Justice Syed Aley Maqbool Rizvi of Accountability Court-1 pronounced the verdict after recording arguments on the application from both sides.

Allowing the application, the court acquitted R.B. Rahoo and Khan Mohammad Qureshi, the former employees of Karachi Port Trust, and Ghulam Abbas Soomro and Ramesh M. Odashi, the ex-staffers of land utilisation department.

According to the reference (No 8/2007) filed by the National Accountability Bureau, the accused were involved in illegal transfer and subsequent allotment of about 75-acre land along Mai Kolachi Road to certain private parties.

The records showed that the KPT land was acquired for the city’s uplift and development and the provincial government did not make payment for the land to the KPT.

The reference stated that the piece of land was fraudulently sold out to some private parties at a throwaway price, thereby causing a heavy loss to the government exchequer. It added the actual valuation of the said land was Rs3,000 million, while it was sold out for Rs204.977 million.

Former Sindh Assembly Speaker Syed Muzaffar Hussain Shah was also nominated in the FIR on the grounds that the illegal allotments had been effected by his approval. However, during the proceedings of the reference, he was found clear and acquitted.

Adam Khan Jokhio and other members of the private parties who were allegedly involved in the scam also moved an acquittal plea to the court under Section 265-K of CrPC. After recording the arguments on the plea, the judge reserved the judgment till April 3 (today).

Transfers and posting of ADJs