NAB asked to investigate DHA ‘land scam'

[Salman]

KARACHI:
Transparency International Pakistan (TIP) has written a letter to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Sindh, requesting it to look into a sweeping land scam whose main player and beneficiary is the Defence Housing Authority (DHA).

The letter initially brings to notice the allotment of a plot, No. 15-D, Golf Course Road 2, Phase IV, DHA, Karachi to Lieutenant General Sajjad Ghani. The official was the former corps commander of Karachi (Corps V) and the president of DHA at the time in September, last year, when the plot was allotted to him. According to the letter, a copy of which is available with The Express Tribune, the plot in question is worth Rs50 million.

TIP claims that the plot in Karachi was allotted to Lt Gen Ghani in lieu of a plot in Lahore. Though both plots were of the same size, the plot in Lahore was of considerably lesser value at Rs2 million.

Another major discrepancy highlighted in the letter was the case of the 342 acres of land, which is included in the 490 acres of land, now allocated for the ‘Waterfront Project’.

The 342 acres of mangrove forest land, located along the Malir River estuary of the Arabian Sea, was initially allotted by the then Pakistan Peoples Party mining minister, Agha Tariq, in his wife’s name in July 1996. Subsequently, he had it converted into residential and commercial lease for 99 years through the Board of Revenue (BOR), Sindh.

In September, that same year, the land was sold to a private construction firm, Marina City Developments, a joint venture of Asif Baig Mohammad and Khalid Masood. Over the last few years, there has been ongoing litigation with regards to the allotment rates of the land and also on its ownership, after the two businessmen had a falling out. Court proceedings are still pending, with another party later joining the contest for ownership of the land.

The latest development in the case came about in the current year when the Board of Revenue, Sindh, transferred the ownership of the 342 acres of land in the name of four individuals, Sultan, Nasreen Akhtar, Amjadi Hussain and Aslam Pervez. Not only this, the BOR added another 148 acres to their title, bringing the total land to 490 acres. The land was allegedly allotted to the four individuals in exchange for alleged ‘ancestral’ land in rural Sindh.

According to the TIP’s letter, the act of allotting 148 acres of forest land to the four individuals is in itself a violation of the ban on allotment of forest land. Moreover, questions over the veracity of the individuals’ claims of ancestral land arose when they, in their claim papers, submitted a document dating back to 1937, mentioned ‘District East of Karachi’. No such demarcation of districts existed at the time.

The DHA has now agreed to purchase the 342 acres of land under litigation, as well as the other 142 acres, from the individuals. The newly-designed master plan of DHA Phase VIII, drafted by a private architecture firm, Zavia Architecture, has the 490 acres incorporated within it, depriving the land of its forest status.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 31st, 2014.