QUETTA: Taking notice of reports about illegal allotment of precious government land in Gwadar, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has initiated investigations into what it has termed a multi-billion scam.

The NAB authorities said here on Tuesday that some people enjoying patronage of influential persons and officials of the revenue department had allegedly got about 3,200 acres of state land worth Rs70 billion in the port city allotted in their name.

Initial investigations had revealed that the people involved in the scam had earlier got 12,000 acres in the city allotted for themselves, they said. However, after the scam was exposed they returned the land to the government.

They said that in this regard the high court had upheld a decision of the settlement officer and directed a senior member of the Board of Revenue to determine boundaries of the land concerned.

Sources claimed the people with nefarious designs became active again after a while and got some 3,167 acres of land allotted in their names, out of the said 12,000 acres.

They alleged that some revenue department officials had illegally issued a judicial order for the allotment of the land. However, they added, the order of the senior member, Board of Revenue, was challenged by the government of Balochistan before a full bench of the Board of Revenue which had suspended it.

The sources said that some senior officials of NAB in Balochistan had been deputed to carry out the investigation.

According to a NAB official, the bureau would soon bring to justice the people involved in the illegal allotment of land in Gwadar.

Published in Dawn, August 23rd, 2017