HYDERABAD: A division bench comprising Justice Amjad Ali Sahito and Justice Khadim Hussain Soomro on Thursday issued a notice to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) chairman asking him to submit a report regarding applicant’s claim about payment / recovery of embezzlement amount from him in M6 Hyderabad-Sukkur Motorway land scam.

The court passed order on a criminal miscellaneous application filed by Ishrat Lohar advocate on behalf of co-accused, Zeeshan Sahito, praying the court to declare order of March 14, 2024 passed by regional board management (RBM) of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and direct NAB to accept accused’s offer of plea bargain in the case.

According to court’s order, it was surfaced during course of arguments and NAB’s investigating officer, Irfan Ali (a deputy director) and that the then Matiari deputy commissioner Adnan Rasheed handed over an amount of Rs100m to an officer of Military Intelligence (MI) namely Col Zameer Bhayo (said officer has been court martialed), posted in Hyderabad at that time, as bribe to cover-up fraud of embezzlement of M6 motorway funds through his front man Zeeshan Sahito, the applicant.

NAB’s IO stated before bench that they conveyed such information to DG MI and that said officer was arrested.

Only Rs20m were recovered from his possession and Rs40m were still in his possession as the same was not handed over to NAB. The court’s order read that “when enquired from him [NAB IO] whether he has been convicted in corruption charges or not and why he has not joined him as accused in the case IO replied in negative. “In view of above, let a report be called from NAB chairman in this respect which shall reach this court on or before next date of hearing”, said court’s order. The case was adjourned to Nov 27 with directive to court’s office to send copy of order to NAB chairman.

Applicant’ counsel, Lohar quoted March 14 order of RBM and said that as per this order his client had applied for plea bargain amounting to Rs33.2m and submitted pay orders of Rs5.8m whereas Rs5.5m were submitted by Saleem Channa on behalf of Zeeshan Sahito. He said that this order reflected that total amount received from accused Sahito was Rs11.3m through pay orders as 34pc of his liability in the case.

Ishrat contended that this order disclosed that an amount of Rs5.5m was received from Asadullah Barkat against investment made by Zeeshan Ali Sahito in (Bakat’s) project namely Hero Square, Hyderabad. Hence, remaining outstanding liability against the applicant, was Rs16.4m for which accused has to provide bank guarantee. Lohar submitted that given the amount surrendered by his client to NAB he was no longer required to pay any amount or submit bank guarantee to seek his release from prison under section 25 of National Accountability Ordinance 1999.

Published in Dawn, November 3rd, 2024