Irfan Aligi
Karachi
A huge land scam has surfaced in Karachi’s Malir area. The scam is about transfer of 252 acres of land while ignoring or manipulating the laws that govern the land proprietorship. An enquiry on orders of Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has been completed and the enquiry committee has proposed certain legal actions against those involved in the scam after registering due FIRs.
According to details, the said 252 acres of land was distributed/sold during the tenure of the previous government in Sindh and allegedly, officers of Sindh Board of Revenue (SBR) were involved in that menace of land plunders. It was found that during land transfer, certain legal requirements were ignored such as allotment of land, regularization, categorization, challan and etc; thus the exchequer was inflicted with colossal loss of revenue to the tune of billions of rupees. The 30-year lease was also changed into 99-year lease and allegedly, Sindh secretary Land utelisation Aftab Ahmed Memon was involved. The later is already in jail.
According to report of the enquiry committee, 6 acre of land was allotted to Allah Din Brohi, 4 acres to Amina Bano, 10 acres to Amir Abbas, 5 acres to M/s. Azam Impex, 16 acres to Rafique Ahmed Siddiqui, 16 acres to Mansoor Ali Siyal. M/s. Five Star Enterprises got possession of 68 acres of land. Jawaid Iqbal got 12 acres, Khalil Ur Rehman got 18 acres and Masood Ahmed Khan got 4 acres of land. Usman was allotted with 2 acres of land, Ghulam Muhammad was given 7 acres and Sakina was given 4 acres of land.
The committee laid in the recommendations that the officers of the SBR had also cheated the committee and presented manipulated record of land. The committee has recommended to the CM that the allotment of the said land should be revoked. According to sources, the Anti-Corruption Department has already confiscated 17 challans which were for the purpose of land allotment.
