The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman retired Lt Gen Nazir Ahmed Butt has disclosed that fraudulent land documents for 7,500 acres in Karachi have resulted in corruption amounting to Rs3 trillion. The revelation was made during a meeting with the Association of Builders and Developers (ABAD), where he acknowledged deep-rooted irregularities in the real estate sector.
He warned that exposing these fraudulent transactions could cause significant upheaval and criticised the Lyari Development Authority (LDA), Karachi Development Authority (KDA), and Malir Development Authority (MDA) for failing to hand over plots to allottees for the past 40 years. He assured ABAD that NAB would act if provided with solid evidence of wrongdoing.
ABAD Chairman Muhammad Hassan Bakhshi expressed concern over unchecked illegal construction, stating that 85,000 unauthorized buildings have been erected in Karachi over the past five years. He accused the Sindh government of allocating land to select individuals instead of conducting transparent auctions and called for the introduction of a land grant policy.
The NAB chairman confirmed that the bureau was aware of the challenges faced by developers and vowed to support the real estate sector while ensuring accountability. He urged ABAD to submit evidence of illegal constructions so that appropriate action could be taken, either through demolition or regularisation.
Highlighting NAB’s recent efforts, he stated that the bureau had recovered 1.8 million acres of agricultural land in Sindh worth Rs4 trillion in the past eight months and transferred it to the Revenue Department. He also noted that NAB had dismissed over 21,000 unresolved complaints from before 2022, streamlining its focus on significant corruption cases.
Mr Butt stressed the need for a centralised land record system, pointing out that various land authorities in Sindh operate without coordination. He announced that major reforms in land record management were forthcoming and directed NAB’s Director-General to oversee Karachi’s master plan to curb future irregularities.
He further revealed plans to establish a regional NAB office in Gwadar to tackle land-related corruption, where disputed land holdings amount to Rs3 trillion.
ABAD Patron-in-Chief Mohsin Sheikhani recommended that land transactions be subject to NAB verification and called for third-party involvement in digitising Sindh’s land records to eliminate manipulation. He expressed concerns that existing corrupt institutions were digitising their own records, which could further enable fraudulent activities.
The NAB chairman assured builders that any NAB official found harassing individuals without justification would face strict action and reiterated the bureau’s commitment to ensuring transparency in the real estate sector.
