KARACHI: An antiterrorism court on Thursday issued show-cause notices to the director general of the Karachi Development Authority (KDA) and the deputy commissioner (West) over their absence in a matter pertaining to illegal construction on an amenity plot in Surjani Town.

The ATC-XII judge expressed resentment over absence of both officials as well as for non-compliance with the directions issued on the previous hearing and directed them to submit replies to the show-cause notices till July 20.

The court allowed a request of an of ficial of the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) seeking time to file compliance report and directed him to submit the report at the next hearing.

The ATC was hearing a case registered against two suspects af filiated with a madressah for allegedly collecting funds and donations for a banned militant outfit and during proceedings it came on record that the mosque/madressah were built on an amenity plot meant for a park in Maymarabad, Surjani Town.

Mohammad Bin Shahzad and Rehan, whowere shown absconders in the charge sheet, turned up before the ATC for pre-arrest bail after obtaining protective bail from the high court.

After hearing arguments from both sides, the ATC dismissed the bail applications of both suspects.

In the last hearing, the ATC judge severely criticised the DC for not checking the legal status of the mosque/madressah before taking it over in government custody and also expressed resentment with the SBCA for allowing construction on government land and sought reports from them.

The Counter Terrorism Department had booked Mohammad Bin Shahzad, Rehan Ahmed and their alleged accomplice Bashir under Section 11-N of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 and contended that they were looking af ter the af f airs of the mosque and madressah and collecting funds for the banned Jaish-iMohammad.

Babar Ghauri`s properties The National Accountability Bureau on Thursday informed an accountability court that it was gathering information to attach properties of former ports and shippingminister Babur Ghauri in a reference about illegal appointments in the Karachi Port Trust.

NAB had filed a reference against the former minister and others for allegedly making around 940 illegal appointments in the KPT causing over Rs2 billion losses to the national exchequer.

The former minister was shown as an absconder in the reference. The court had directed NAB to complete the proceeding of Sections 87 (proclamation of person absconding) and 88 (attachment of property of person absconding) of the criminal procedure code against the former minister, a mandatory procedure before declaring an absconder a proclaimed of fender.

NAB through a report informed the court that the proceedings of proclamation had been completed and information was being collected about properties of the former ports and shipping minister for attachment.

It further maintained that NAB had received a report regarding properties owned by Babur Ghauri in Sindh while letters had again been sent to the chief secretaries of three other provinces seeking details of his properties and sought time to complete the process.