Daily Times

KARACHI: The Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) has asked Board of Revenue (BOR) to cancel the allotment of a 2,200 square yard plot whose ownership is disputed.

The water board claims that the land belongs to it and was alotted by the BOR in violation of rules to a private person in 1995.

Officials of the KWSB state that the land, located in Deh Okowiri, Talka Gujjro East District, is categorised as ‘commercial’ and has a market value of above Rs 2 billion (bn).

They say that the issue was unearthed when a person interested in buying the plot approached the KWSB with documents establishing the prospective seller’s ownership [a possession letter and demarcation plan]. The possession letter and demarcation plan were issued by East Karachi deputy commissioner on March 1, 1997.

According to officials of KWSB, the civic body was the owner of this land. They claimed that utility services of the KWSB were running underneath this land, and therefore, allotment to a private party was by no means legal.

KWSB officials shared that the entity, after this revelation, asked the BOR Sindh to cancel the allotment. They further said that in case of any negligence or delay, water entity would go to National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for an inquiry into the matter.

According to documents available with Daily Times, Iqbal Ahmad, son of Jamil Ahmad was the prospective seller in this deal. The documents detailed that Iqbal received this land as a gift from belated P R Siddiqui, who got the land alotted from the Land Utilisation Department of BOR.

In the meantime, NAB is already investigating a case regarding 13 plots apparently reserved for KWSB allegedly alloted to Siddqui by a former managing director of KWSB, Brig (retd) Iftikhar Haider. The market value of these plots is Rs 25 billion (bn).

According to NAB Karachi, Brig Iftikhar, Syed Omer Ahmad and Shahid Rasool are under custody and are being grilled about the land deals. The challan for their trials would soon be submitted in NAB courts. Investigation Officer Aleem Baig, along with a NAB team is interrogating the suspects. NAB officials also claim that the staff officer to former dictator Pervez Musharraf Group, Captain (retd) Jawaid Ahmed was also involved in the scam.

Reportedly, the possession of these plots was given to Siddiqui under the name of Kulsoom Builders and Abu Bakr Sheikhani Builders during Mustafa Kamal’s tenure as the city mayor. The alotment was made as far back as 1991 under directives of former principal secretary to Sindh chief minister, Imtiaz Sheikh. The other signatories of this accord include former East deputy commissioner Ghulam Ali Pasha, East assistant commissioner Israr Shah, and Ghulam Hussain, a revenue board official.

Published in Daily Times, August 12^th 2018.