The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) has arrested former KPK revenue minister Syed Murid Kazim along with other officials on the charges of corruption and misuse of authority.
The former minister and the revenue officials had been accused of illegal transfer of 1976 kanal state land in D.I Khan to the Naval Families Rehabilitation Organization (NFRO) in 2010, said a NAB press release here Monday.
The modus operandi adopted by the accused persons was that in 2009 the then Director NFRO, Bahawalpur, sent an application stating therein that since about 1976 kanals land already allotted to the NFRO (in D I Khan) was not cultivable, therefore, it might be exchanged with cultivable one.
As per rules, allotment of alternate land was the competency of chief minister of the province, however, accused Murid Kazim being revenue minister abused his authority and directed Board of Revenue KPK to put up a note for allotment of alternate land to NFRO Bahawalpur and gave illegal approval to the transfer of 1976 kanal land to the Organization.
Accused Riaz Muhammad, ex-District Officer (Revenue & Estate) D.I Khan included valuable commercial and residential properties in the proposal which were later on allotted to officers and officials of the Revenue Department KPK.
Accused Murid Kazim got allotted 50 kanal land in the name of his closed associate Syed Atta Hussain Shah. Similarly, accused Gul Hassan got 33 kanal land and accused Qayyum Nawaz, ex-District Officer (Revenue & Estate) D.I Khan 4 kanal and 3 Marla land in D.I. Khan.
It may be mentioned that 100 kanal ‘illegally allotted’ land worth millions of rupees has already been recovered as voluntary return by the NAB and transferred to the KPK government.
The accused persons will be produced before the Accountability Court for obtaining their physical remand to proceed further as per law. (APP)
