An accountability court on Saturday announced its verdict in the National Insurance Corporation Limited (NICL) mega land scam case and sentenced six accused, including former chairman Ayaz Khan Niazi, to seven years in prison. The accountability court in Karachi also barred the six convicts from holding any public office for 10 years. The scandal that surfaced some five years back pertains to financial embezzlement by former NICL chairperson Ayaz Khan Niazi, Mohsin Habib Warraich, then commerce minister (late) Makhdoom Amin Fahim, and several others in the purchase of official land. A National Accountability Bureau (NAB) reference had accused them of purchasing official land in Karachi’s Korangi area at a higher price and causing a loss of Rs 490 million to the national exchequer. Following the court order, the police took the convicts into custody. Earlier, two suspects in the case had also sought a plea bargain. Apart from embezzling NICL funds to buy land in Korangi, Niazi is also named in four other corruption cases that are currently being heard in accountability courts in Lahore. The story of over Rs6billion NICL scam broke in 2009-10 when Mohsin Warraich’s company, Messrs Privilege, purchased 803 kanals from the NICL at Mauza Toor, Lahore, for a sum of Rs 1.68 billion. The company allegedly sold the land without getting the property mutated in its favour. The NICL also sold land measuring 20 kanals near the Lahore Airport Road to Mohsin Warraich for Rs 1.7 billion. It sold the land at a rate of Rs 5.3 million per kanal, although its market value was much higher. Published in Daily Times, December 9th 2018.