Hyderabad-Sukkur land scam: Sindh govt seeks red warrant for DC Naushahro Feroze

KARACHI: Sindh government has announced to seek red warrant for arresting the suspended Deputy Commissioner of Naushahro Feroze Tashfeen Alam for his involvement in the Hyderabad-Sukkur M6 land scam case. The announcement was made by Sindh government spokesperson Murtaza Wahab while addressing a press conference here on Monday. 

Murtaza Wahab’s announcement came just a week after the joint interrogation team (JIT), made by the provincial government, claimed major headway into the Matiari land acquisition scam, saying it was able to ensure recovery of Rs420m out of the around Rs2b missing funds released by the National Highway Authority for the Hyderabad-Sukkur M6 project.

The funds were deposited by the NHA into the account of Matiari deputy commissioner Adnan Rasheed, who is currently in custody. The Anti-Corruption Establishment has obtained his remand. The amount of Rs1.2m was earlier recovered from DC House.

Rasheed was arrested by Hyderabad’s Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) on November 17. Former Saeedabad assistant com­m­i­ss­ioner Mansoor Abbasi was also involved in the scandal as well as the Saeedabad branch of Sindh Bank.

The Sindh government’s spokesperson said “the anti-corruption department has registered a case pertaining to the scam in Nausharo Feroze and his (Alam) name is included in the first information report (FIR).” Alam is reportedly to have fled to Azerbaijan on November 19. The Sindh General Administration and Coordination Department issued his suspension orders on November 22 while the federal Establishment Division suspended Alam for 120 days.

Murtaza Wahab said “since the FIR is based on a comprehensive fact-finding report, it has been decided that the Anti-Corruption Department (ACE) will approach the federal government so that a red warrant for the former deputy commissioner is issued via Interpol.” He further said that the Sindh government was in regular contact with the National Highway Authority (NHA), the Federal Investigation Authority (FIA) and the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).