NAB chairman directed look into negligent IO’s matter

KARACHI: The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Thursday directed the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal to withdraw more than 100 inquiries assigned to one of its officers who showed negligence while investigating a case related to the allotment of plots carved out from a public park in Al Habib Cooperative Housing Society Scheme 33.

A three-member bench headed by Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed and comprising Justice Ijazul Ahsan and Justice Qazi Muhammad Amin Ahmed during a hearing of a matter about the encroachment of the park noted that NAB had filed a reference against the accused who carved out plots from land allocated for parks and got them allotted to people but the investigation officer (IO) Ausaf Talpur knew nothing about the case.

When the bench inquired the officer as to why the accused named in the reference had not been arrested, he submitted that they had gotten bail from Sindh High Court. But on various queries of the bench, the IO indicated that he had no knowledge whether the bails were protective, or whether they had been confirmed or not.

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The bench also found that IO did not know when the bails were granted and when the same was confirmed.

The IO had no answer when the bench asked why he did not move the court for the cancellation of the bails of the accused.

“The accused are standing tall before us and you know nothing,” Chief Justice Gulzar observed while addressing the IO.

To a query of the bench, the IO submitted that he had been assigned more than a hundred investigations.

Justice Qazi Amin Ahmed noted the IO had allowed the accused to abuse the process of law and asked whether the IO should be sent to jail.

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The CJP wondered that such an incompetent officer was a regular employee of the NAB.

Registrar of Sindh Cooperative Societies submitted that the process of cancellation of 32 plots could not be initiated because their leases had been registered by the concerned deputy registrar.

Justice Amin observed that a sub-registrar could only cancel a document where there is a dispute over the title and the document itself is not illegal. Here the allotment itself is illegal from ab initio.

The bench found that the registrar was not aware that he had the authority to cancel the allotment orders of plots.

Observing that the most important thing was the cancellation of the plots carved out from an amenity plot, the bench ordered the administrator of the society to initiate the process of cancellation of allotment of plots and complete it in a month.

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Observing that the IO was disconnected and not interested in the investigation though he claimed that more than a hundred cases had been assigned to him, the bench directed the NAB chairman to look into his matter, withdraw all cases from him and transfer them to some other competent officer.

The bench also directed the NAB chief to recover the amount the accused had earned by selling the land of amenity plot and pay compensation to those allottees who were defrauded by the accused.

The bench also issued notice to the accused of November 26 as to why their bails be not cancelled.

KE grid station

The bench directed the K-Electric counsel to seek instructions from their clients whether they were ready to relocate a grid station the company had installed on a greenbelt of PECHS.

The bench did not agree with the arguments of the K-Electric counsel that rules allowed the use of amenity space for a public purpose and observed that K-Electric was a private commercial entity.

NAPA relocation from Hindu Gymkhana

In a separate case, the bench observed that it was disappointed by commissioner Karachi’s capacity to comprehend and comply with court orders.

The court also directed advocate general Sindh to help find a suitable space to relocate the National Academy of Performing Arts (NAPA) from Hindu Gymkhana, a declared heritage building, and file a report within a month.

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At the last hearing, the bench had directed the commissioner to find a space for relocation of NAPA.

However, when asked by the bench whether he had found a suitable space, the commissioner replied that he had written deputy commissioner South to look for the place. The commissioner conceded that had not examined any site as was directed by the court.