SUKKUR: The mayor of Sukkur Municipal Corporation has decided to ask the National Accountability Bureau to investigate ‘fraudulent’ sale of municipal land and government residential quarters and bungalows to influential persons by the katchi abadi and other departments.

Mayor barrister Arsalan Islam Shaikh told a group of journalists at his residence on Wednesday that he had taken the decision in consultation with Sukkur Deputy Commissioner Dr Waheed Asghar Bhatti.

He said that municipal property had either been sold or rented on the basis of forged papers carrying past dates and signatures of former officers. “We have decided to get the municipal land vacated at any cost,” he said.

He said that the in-charge of the katchi abadis’ body and his staff had played a major role in the fraud. Therefore, he said, directives had been issued to place the officer under suspension immediately.

He said that it had been decided to contact NAB and other agencies concerned to carry out a thorough investigation into the scam so that action could be taken against all the officers and staff involved in it.

Action would also be taken against officials and staff of revenue, land grant, tax branch and other departments who were involved in manipulating the record on the pretext that a major chunk of it was burnt down by mobs during Dec 27 disturbances in the wake of assassination of Benazir Bhutto, he said.

Published in Dawn, January 27th, 2017