SHC extends Mustafa Kamal, others' interim bail in illegal land allotment case

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court extended interim bail of former Karachi mayor Mustafa Kamal and others in illegal land allotment case until October 29, ARY News reported on Tuesday.

Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) chief appeared before a bench of the high court today along with co-accused in the case.

Prosecutor of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) told the court that amenity plots in the city were allotted to builders after lease. No accused has denied the charge of illegal allotment of the plots, the prosecutor further said.

Chief Justice Ahmad Ali M Sheikh during the court hearing, remarked that Kamal may have forgotten but everyone in city remembers what happened during his tenure. He did this for the poor, “They were all ‘poor’ who were allotted these amenity plots,” chief justice said.

The NAB prosecutor will continue his arguments in next hearing of the case.

The accountability bureau, in a reference, has charged Kamal of illegally allotting 137 plots on 5,500 acres of land near Sea View. He even gave permission to a private construction firm to construct a multi-storey building in the area, the bureau claimed.

The land was leased out to hawkers and shopkeepers in 1980, NAB said, adding that it was leased out to a private firm in 2005.

Former Director-General of the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) Iftikhar Qaimkhani, Fazalur Rehman, Mumtaz Haider, Nazir Zardari and others are among the co-accused in the case.