KARACHI: An accountability court on Saturday reissued notices to former Karachi mayor and Pak Sarzameen Party chairman Syed Mustafa Kamal and three others in a case pertaining to alleged illegal allotment of around 6,000 square yards of land to Bahria Town for a multistorey building.

The National Accountability Bureau booked the then mayor, then district coordination officer Fazlur Rehman, then executive district officer Iftikhar Kaimkhani, then district officer Mumtaz Haider, then additional DO Syed Nishat Ali and then sub-registrar-II, Clifton Nazir Zardari in the reference.

It also named five builders — Zain Malik, the son-in-law of real estate tycoon Malik Riaz, Mohammad Dawood, Mohammad Yaqoob, Mohammad Irfan and Mohammad Rafiq all associated with M/s DJ Builders and Developers.

On Saturday, the matter was taken up by Judge Dr Sher Bano Karim of the Accountability Court-III, who had last week summoned 11 nominated suspects after admitting the reference for hearing.

Seven suspects appeared on interim pre-arrest bail while four others — Mr Kamal, Mr Malik, Mr Yaqoob and Mr Zardari — failed to turn up.

The court directed the prosecution to provide copies of the reference to the suspects. It also reissued notices to the absent suspects, directing them to appear on the next date of hearing (July 11).

According to the reference, the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation in 1982 created 198 stalls/shops on two amenity plots adjacent to the Kothari Parade for dislocated hawkers while four commercial plots, each measuring 255.55 sq-yds, were also created in the locality.

It alleged that the plan was never implemented and M/s DJ Builders purchased four commercial plots and 198 stalls of the hawkers. However, the two amenity plots were never transferred in the builder’s name.

NAB alleged that Zain Malik and others associated with M/s DJ Builders in connivance with then Karachi nazim Kamal, DCO Rehman and others unlawfully got transferred 102 stalls in favour of Bahria Town Private Limited through a conveyance deed without obtaining permission from the Karachi Development Authority.

The statement of the site officer clearly mentioned that the possession of the plots was merely a formality in documents, thus the physical possession of the land was never handed over to the builders since it was not possible at the site, which required bifurcation or earmarking. This clearly showed the whole scenario was made just to take over the plots of the hawkers and to give illegal benefit to M/s DJ Builders, it added.

It stated that the price was shown in the registration deed as only Rs260 million while its market value was assessed at Rs2.155 billion and the forced sale value at Rs1.724bn.

Published in Dawn, June 30th, 2019