HYDERABAD: Accountability Court-II judge Mehboob Ali Dayo on Tuesday framed charges against accused in the case of Rs5.8 billion corruption in land acquisition for the Sukkur-Hyderabad Motorway (M6).

All the accused denied the charge and the court adjourned the matter to Aug 23 for recording evidence and passing order on bail pleas on which the order had been reserved.

According to National Accountability Bureau’s prosecutor Jangu Khan, all the accused were present at the court and he opposed grant of bail to them. Three accused were still absconding while Aslam Pirzado and Mir Mohammad Suhag, manager of Sindh Bank’s Matiari branch, had filed fresh bail applications which were heard on Aug 13.

The scam came to surface in October last year. A similar case involving M6 was detected in Naushahro Feroze district, which was later transferred to Hyderabad’s accountability court.

Riazat Ali Sahar advocate, counsel for the accused, former Matiari deputy commissioner Adnan Rashid, argued that once LAO was appointed then everything was managed by him and the DC had no involvement with his affairs.

He did not sign any cheque or letter except for the permission for shifting the amount of land acquisition from an already available account of LAO to another one in Sindh Bank, he said.

He said the matter needed to be probed further because Anti-Corruption Establishment had claimed that Rs420m were recovered from the then assistant commissioner Mansoor Abbasi while NAB officials claimed Rs430m were recovered from Mazhar.

Lahore-based Mazhar, in his statement filed under Section 164 Cr.PC, stated that the Rs430m belonged to his friend, Adnan Rashid, which had been recovered by NAB.

Ishrat Lohar, counsel for Tabish Shah, manager of the Sindh Bank wherefrom the amount had been withdrawn from the account of LAO, contended that Shah had acted in line with standard operating procedures of the bank.

He said that he did not sign any cheque or account opening form. Suspicious transaction regulations did not apply to government related transactions and furthermore that financial management unit handled major transactions and not the area manager.

He said the bank manager only supervised administrative matters as the rest was the job of branch manager and branch operations manager. About the allegation against his client that he met co-accused, Asghar Jatoi and Rehmatullah Solangi, on Oct 14, 2022, while cash was withdrawn on Oct 17, he clarified the bank was a public place and anyone could meet the bank manager.

He asserted that the ceiling of this bank covered Rs5m to Rs10m transaction and when any transaction crossed this ceiling the branch manager informed the area manager and he brought it into the notice of his high-ups. But, he said, being area manager his client did not handle any such email.

He said that another of his clients, Illahi Bux, a tapedar, should be granted bail because co-accused Jurial Shah had been allowed bail on similar grounds. Bux had only submitted a report about acquisition of 70 to 80 acres of land in Tapo Matiari, which was his jurisdiction, he said.

Published in Dawn, August 16th, 2023