KARACHI : The Sindh government on Tuesday appointed Sohail Rajput the new Karachi Commissioner after transferring Iftikhar Shalawani, who was serving as the city’s commissioner, to the post of secretary Local Government & Housing Town Planning Department.

Chief Minister Sindh Murad Ali Shah approved Rajput’s appointment, who is a is a Grade 21 officer, as Commissioner Karachi.

Who is Dr Sohail Rajput?

A senior government officer who joined the civil service in 1991, Dr Rajput was serving at the post of additional secretary at the Ministry of Finance before his appointment as commissioner of the Karachi Division.

He has previously been appointed to the posts of secretary local government Sindh board, secretary finance Sindh, commissioner Hyderabad Division and principal secretary to the chief minister Sindh.

In 2018, Dr Rajput’s services were transferred to the federal government where he was appointed to the Ministry of Finance as the additional secretary.

On August 18, 2020, his services were once again transferred to the Sindh government. He is expected to take charge as Commissioner Karachi soon.

NAB arrests Sindh’s local government secretary, others over illegal land allotment

A day earlier, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) arrested Sindh’s Secretary, Local Government Roshan Ali Shaikh from the Sindh High Court over his suspected involvement in a case pertaining to the illegal allotment of government land.

NAB officials moved to arrest the senior bureaucrat after the High Court rejected Shaikh’s bail plea in the case.

The court, while hearing the case today, remarked that Shaikh and nine others had been involved in the illegal allotment of land and misused their powers as government officials. The court added that the suspects caused a loss to the national exchequer and should therefore be arrested immediately.

The court also issued orders for the arrest of Fazlur Rehman and others accused in the reference, including Waseem, Nadeem Qadir Khokhar, Sabih Aslam and others.

MQM’s Saif Abbas, Shoaib Memon and Shaukat Jokhio, who have been in jail for the last two years in connection with the case, were granted bail, with the court ordering their immediate release.

The Karachi Metropolitan Corporation and the Sindh Board of Revenue had filed a reference against Shaikh and others, accusing them of allotting 265 acres of government land illegally. The land, which was located in Landhi, was illegally allotted to the small cottage industry.

ISLAMABAD : An accountability court on Tuesday postponed until Sept 9 the proceedings to declare former prime minister Nawaz Sharif a proclaimed offender over his perpetual absence from the Toshakhana case hearing.

Accountability Judge Asghar Ali has gone on summer vacation, due to which the proclamation proceedings was put off until Sept 9 when the court is slated to resume the hearing of the case.

On Aug 17, the accountability court had ruled that former president Asif Ali Zardari and former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gillani will be indicted in the Toshakhana reference on Sept 9.

Accountability Judge Asghar Ali had halted the process to declare former prime minister Nawaz Sharif a proclaimed offender over his perpetual absence from the court’s proceedings in the case until Aug 25 after he was informed that the PML-N supreme leader’s arrest warrants have been challenged in the IHC.

The accountability court also summoned Omni Group owner Anwar Majeed and his son Abdul Ghani Majeed, named in the case, to appear on next hearing on Sept 9 for indictment and directed all accused to furnish a surety bond of Rs2 million each.

ISLAMABAD: PML-N leader Ahsan Iqbal had to face an awkward situation on Tuesday when he reached the Islamabad accountability court only to be told that he has arrived a day earlier to attend the Narowal sports city case hearing.

The former federal minister arrived at the accountability court this morning to attend the hearing of the graft case instituted against him by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) but was reminded by the court staff that the hearing is slated for August 26 (tomorrow).

Ahsan Iqbal, realising his mistake, returned back home.Last month, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had sought more time from the accountability court to file reference against Ahsan Iqbal. Accepting its request, the court adjourned the hearing till August 26.

During the hearing, the judge asked the NAB officials as to why the reference against Ahsan Iqbal was not filed, to which they replied that they had sent the reference to Headquarters for approval.

Ahsan is accused of using funds of the federal government and Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) for a sports city in Narowal.

NAB had announced to initiate a probe into alleged violation of rules in the construction of the National Sports City project –  a day after its inauguration by the then President of Pakistan Mamnoon Hussain.

LAHORE : An accountability court on Tuesday sought arguments on an application seeking to unfreeze assets of Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif and members of his family.

Admin Judge Jawadul Hassan directed lawyers representing the PML-N president to appear on next hearing on August 27 to put forth their arguments in the case.

Shehbaz stated in his plea that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) froze his family’s properties in utter disregard for the actual facts as assets can not be frozen during the process of investigation.He requested the accountability court to review its verdict of allowing the national graft buster to freeze the assets.

Last year on Dec 11, the accountability court had ordered authorities to freeze properties of the PML-N president and his family.

The court, in its verdict, directed the authorities concerned to freeze all assets of Shehbaz Sharif, Hamza Shehbaz, Suleman Shehbaz, two wives of Shehbaz including Nusrat Shehbaz and Tehmina Durrani.

Moreover, the family members of Shehbaz was given 14 days to file objections.

Prior to that, the anti-corruption watchdog submitted the complete record of the assets of the Shehbaz family.

According to the NAB report, the Shehbaz Sharif family accumulated assets of billions of rupees through money laundering.

ISLAMABAD: A passenger has been arrested by Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) officials at Islamabad airport over possessing fake travel documents.

Sources said the passenger arrived was set to fly to Doha from Islamabad, but was caught at the immigration counter of the FIA. Passenger named Noman is resident of Jhelum.

FIA officials have shifted the arrested person to anti-human smuggling cell for further investigation.

Earlier on January 28, five individuals were caught by the Civil Aviation Authorities (CAA) for trying to board a flight with fake and counterfeit passports and documents in Islamabad.
According to details, the apprehended individuals were trying to fly out of Pakistan to Malaysia.

According to the spokesperson of the CAA, the individuals were trying to board the flight via regular paper visas while one of them, namely Shahid was willing to travel on a fake E-visa.

ISLAMABAD : The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued a notice to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on a petition of former president Asif Ali Zardari’s close aide Anwar Majeed seeking bail in the multi-billion fake accounts case.

A division bench of the apex court comprising Justice Mushir Alam and Justice Qazi Amin directed the bureau’s prosecutor general to file comments by next hearing. Anwar Majeed, who is also the owner of Omni Group, moved the petition seeking bail on medical grounds.

The hearing of the case was adjourned until Sept 2.The petitioner’s lawyer stated before the bench that the Sindh High Court in a ruling observed that the country’s laws don’t provide for allowing an under-trial or convicted prisoner to go abroad for treatment.

He said Anwar Majeed needs to undergo a medical procedure that is possible only abroad and requested the bench to grant him bail so that he could travel abroad for treatment.