An accountability court has issued notices to Federal Health Minister Syed Mustafa Kamal and nine others to appear in a National Accountabiliy Bureau reference pertaining to alleged illegal allotment of land in Clifton.
Karachi ex-mayor Kamal, along with then district coordination officer Fazlur Rehman, then executive district officer Iftikhar Qaimkhani, then district officer Mumtaz Haider, then additional district officer Syed Nishat Ali, then Clifton sub-registrar II Nazir Zardari and five builders, was booked in the alleged corruption reference in 2019.
The Accountability Court-I judge issued notices to the accused persons to turn up on Sept 15 after the bureau filed an application seeking re-initiation of proceedings. “Take notice that, Special Prosecutor NAB filed application for re-initiation of proceedings and issue the notices/summons to the accused in compliance of judgement dated 29-06-2026 passed by the Hon’ble High Court of Sindh,” read the notice issued to the accused.
Earlier, the accountability court had returned the case to the NAB chairman in light of amendments to the National Accountability Ordinance 1999 to file it before the relevant forum. However, the bureau challenged the court’s judgement before the Sindh High Court (SHC), which was allowed.
According to the reference filed by the anti-graft watchdog, the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation had in 1982 created 198 stalls and shops on two amenity plots adjacent to the Kothari Parade for dislocated hawkers, while four commercial plots, each measuring 255.55 square yards, were also created in the locality.
NAB claimed that the real estate developers later purchased four commercial plots and 198 stalls of the hawkers. However, the two amenity plots were never transferred in the builders’ name.
The bureau also claimed that the builders in connivance with then city mayor Kamal and other officials unlawfully got 102 stalls transferred in favour of a real estate development company’s name through a conveyance deed without obtaining the permission of the Karachi Development Authority.
The NAB reference claimed that the price of these stalls was shown in the registration deed to be only Rs260 million, but its market value was assessed at Rs2.155 billion and the forced sale value was adjudged at Rs1.724 billion.
