SC rejects NAB report over land allotment to Qatari

Supreme Court (SC) on Friday rejected the report of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) over allotment of land to a foreigner near an amusement park at Rashid Minhas Road, Karachi by terming it "unacceptable". At Karachi Registry, a three-member bench of SC headed by Justice Gulzar Ahmed and comprising of Justice Faisal Arab and Justice Sajjad Ali Shah resumed the hearing on allotment of two acres of land to a Qatari national at Rashid Minhas Road and showed annoyance over the report of NAB that the said piece of land is not amenity plot.
Justice Gulzar Ahmed said that court had sought the report of Chairman NAB and the one submitted with the court was prepared by an investigation officer. "We reject this report and can send all those to jail, who are misleading the court," Justice Gulzar said. Justice Gulzar said how a foreigner can be allotted land and for which services he has been awarded this piece of land. "We had cancelled the land allotted to a Saudi national in DHA," he said.
The bench also came hard on Board of Revenue (BoR) Sindh and said its officials are also in nexus with the people for allotment of this land. The bench inquired from NAB Prosecutor whether the report should be made part of the record of the court, which said that the land allotted to a Qatari was not an amenity plot.
Justice Sajjad Ali Shah said the report didn't mention as under which rules the land was allotted to the foreigner. The bench summoned fresh report of Chairman NAB on the allotment of land at Rashid Minhas Road. Meanwhile, a two-member SC bench gave the Sindh Government two months to resolve the issues related to the distribution of powers and funds with Karachi Municipal Corporation (KMC) and ruled that the court would decide the matter if the issues were not sorted out by the set deadline.
Advocate General Sindh submitted that the court can issue any decree; at which, the court observed what the government would be doing if the court had to do all the work. The AG said KMC has the funds as well as Mayor Karachi has the powers as per the local government law. The court ordered the Sindh government to resolve the issues with KMC in two months' time.