HYDERABAD: Accountability Court Judge Inam Ali Kalhoro on Saturday sentenced a former chairman of the Hyderabad Railway Employees Cooperative Housing Society Matloob Ahmed Khan to five years’ imprisonment in a land scam involving Rs1.48bn losses caused to the national exchequer. The convict was also ordered to pay a fine of Rs5m.

The accused had absconded after being named in the National Accountability Bureau reference but was arrested later.

The court acquitted two co-accused, Abdul Sattar Leghari, a former administrator of the society, and Naveed Zarar Khan, the managing director of the Sindh Cooperative Housing Authority (SCHA). In all, there are six accused in the reference and three of them — Hyderabad Development Authority (HDA) sitting director general Ghulam Mohammad Kaimkhani, former director general Iqbal Ahmed Memon and its former director planning and development control Shahid Pervez — had already been acquitted.

NAB had received complaints from two citizens, Fareedullah Khan and Raees Ahmed Khan, against accused on which an inquiry was conducted against them. A reference against all the accused was filed in 2015 after NAB completed its inquiry.

According to the reference, management of the housing society got a revised layout plan of its scheme approved from the HDA on Dec 15, 1998. Later, Matloob Ahmed Khan tampered with the plan to insert 51 plots in Block-D land which was not part of society’s land. He subleased 35 plots out of 51 shown in revised layout plan of 1998 on the basis of a forged copy of the revised layout plan. It was fraudulently prepared to insert the 51 plots carved out from the lands belonging to the Latifabad Taluka Municipal Administration (TMA) and Pakistan Railways.

NAB said that excess and unauthorised lands measured about 4-02 acres, out of which 2-38 acres belonged to TMA Latifabad and 1-04 acres to Pakistan Railways.

Neither the TMA nor the Pakistan Railways was authorised to allot the land to the society. The fraud caused a loss of Rs1.48bn (assessed as per current market value) to the national exchequer, the reference said.

In his judgement, Judge Kalhoro said the case of prosecution against Matloob Ahmed Khan “has been proved beyond any reasonable doubt”. He convicted the accused under Section 10 of the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO) 1999 read with Section 265-H (iii) CrPC, and sentenced him to suffer five years’ rigorous imprisonment and ordered him to pay a fine of Rs5m.

Taking a lenient view about the convict’s old age (70 years) and fragile health overtaken by multiple diseases, the court remanded him to Special Prison Nara.

It ruled that the case against Naveed Zarar Khan and Abdul Sattar Leghari was not produced by the prosecution, therefore, they were being acquitted under Section 265-H (i) of the CrPC.

Advocate Ishrat Lohar, who represented Leghari, said that NAB had accused his client of having issued leases in violation of a Sindh High Court order and also a no-objection certificate in 2010. He argued that Leghari had issued sublease in respect of six plots in line with an order of a second senior civil judge. He said he had only complied with the civil court’s order.

He said he discharged his duties within directives of high court passed on Sept 8, 2010 in CP-952/2010. He said while complying with SHC order he didn’t issue any allotment or NOC. He said NAB didn’t cite any owner of those six plots as witness in the reference and that NAB didn’t get any material to connect his client with any illegal gain.

Sajjad Chandio, who represented Naveed Zarar, said that his client never got permission for execution of sublease nor did he issue the letter dated Aug 30, 2010 as it was not mandatory. He said that long before institution of this reference, a civil litigation between parties had been pending in court and evidence produced by the prosecution witnesses was not against his client.

On March 20, 2020 the court had allowed quashment application of HDA director general Ghulam Mohammad Kaimkhani. It had also allowed quashment pleas filed by ex-DG Iqbal Memon and former director Shahid Pervez Memon.

Published in Dawn, January 31st, 2021