Bureau Report
KARACHI: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Monday arrested Sindh Local Government Secretary Roshan Ali Shaikh and other suspects for their alleged involvement in a case pertaining to illegally leasing out 265 acres of Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) land in Malir.
The senior civil servant was arrested from the Sindh High Court (SHC) after it rejected his request to extend the duration of his pre-arrest bail petition in the case. He was granted interim pre-arrest bail in January last which was subsequently extended.
The court, during the hearing of a case, remarked that Shaikh and nine other suspects had been involved in the illegal allotment of land and misused their authority as government officials. The court noticed that the suspects had caused a loss to the national exchequer and should, therefore, be arrested immediately for further action against them.
The court also issued orders for the arrest of Ghulam Mustafa Phul, former secretary of the land utilisation department (LUD), former Karachi administrators Fazlur Rehman, former Karachi commissioner Shoukat Hussain Jokhio and others
The subject land was originally allotted to the KMC in 1960 for the purpose of setting up wool washing tanneries, but KMC officers illegally issued 276 leases for industrial purposes in connivance with a private person, Muhammad Shoaib, who was arrested by the anti-graft bureau and various official records were retrieved from his residence.
KMC directors who are among the suspects have been accused of issuing an authorisation letter for execution of leases in the area of the proposed wool washing tanneries to allow the officers concerned execute leases on behalf of the corporation despite knowing neither any allotment was issued nor any auction was held in respect of the subject lands.
