KARACHI:Sindh High Court (SHC) on Tuesday extended interim bail of former mayor Karachi Mustafa Kamal and others in an alleged illegal land allotment case until October 29.
A SHC bench, headed by Chief Justice Ahmed Ali M Shaikh, heard the bail plea of Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) chief and others in plots allotment case. PSP Chief along with co-accuse appeared before the court.
Prosecutor of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) told the court that amenity plots in the city were allotted to builders after lease. He told the court that no accused had denied the charge of illegal allotment of the plots.
The Chief Justice remarked that Kamal may have forgotten but everyone in the city remembers what happened during his tenure. He did this for the poor. “They were all ‘poor’ who were allotted these amenity plots,” chief justice remarked. The NAB prosecutor will continue his arguments in the next hearing of the case.
The NAB, in a reference, had charged Kamal of illegally allotting 137 plots on 5,500 acres of land near Sea View and he gave permission to a private construction firm to construct a multi-storey building in the area. The land was leased out to hawkers and shopkeepers in 1980, NAB said, adding that it was leased out to a private firm in 2005.
Former Director-General of the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) Iftikhar Qaimkhani, Fazalur Rehman, Mumtaz Haider, Nazir Zardari and others are among the co-accused in the case.
Talking to media persons outside the court, Kamal said that cleanliness campaign of City Government, Federal Government and now by Provincial government has failed. He said there is third cleanliness campaign in the city but no cleaning seems.
He said Army Chief should play his role for system of Karachi which generates 70% revenue to the country. He said there was neither clean drinking water nor medical facilities as people are dying of malaria, dengue and dog-bites. He said no body could present solution to the city without army chief.