KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Thursday directed the investigation officer of an inquiry against the provincial government`s top bureaucrat in a land allotment case to appear in court along with the entire record of the matter as the investigation agency, the National Accountability Bureau, disputed the pre-arrest bail granted to him.

Chief Secretary Siddique Memon, a grade-21 bureaucrat, had on Aug 26 obtained anticipatory bail after NAB served on him a notice for investigation against him for allegedly illegally allotting six acres in Karachi in 1992 when he was the land utilisation secretary.

The NAB in its comments, filed during the previous hearing, said that there was sufficient incriminating material against the chief secretary and there appeared a reasonable ground to believe that he was guilty of the offences punishable under National Accountability Ordinance (NAO), 1999.

The NAB submitted in court that the top bureaucrat of the province was not entitled to the grant of ball.

Apprehension of arrest by the NAB had taken Mr Memon to the SHC that first approved his interim pre-arrest bail and later extended it, exempting him from appearing in court during the hearings.

Scores of key provincial and city governments` officials and politicians have so far secured pre-arrest bail fearing their arrest after the NAB issued notices to them to join investigation against them.

The chief secretary`s counsel, Barrister Zamir Ghumro, contended that the land was allotted in 1992 and regularised in 2008 under the relevant laws.

He submitted that the land was neither allotted by the chief secretary nor was regularised by him.

He said that Mr Memon was posted as secretary land utilisation and when certain facts came to his knowledge he sent the matter to the land committee which said it had already regularised the land.

The counsel said the chief sec-retary was issued a call-up notice under Section 19 read with Section 27 of the NAO, 1999 on Aug 24.

He said the contents of the notice were highly defamatory and derogatory as it was mentioned that the competent authority had tal(en cognizance of an offence committed by the petitioner as ex-secretary land utilisation department.

Barrister Ghumro said the petitioner was asked to appear and record his plea along with record and information.

`It is beyond comprehension that in absence of any plea as also record and information, the competent authority has taken cognizance of an offence allegedly committed by the petitioner,` he contended.

By way of essential background, he said, the land Sector 52-A, Corridor area, Scheme-33, Karachi East, was allotted for residential/commercial purposes with the approval of the chief minister in favour of Mohammad Ayub, son of Sher Khan, and the first instalment of Rs968,000 was deposited in the National Bank of Pakistan, district council branch, on Oct 13, 1992.

Later, he recalled, all allotments/grants made in violation of the law at the rates lower than the marl
However, he said, the cancelled grants were allowed to be regularised by a land committee, headed by a retired judge of the SHC.

The counsel said the land committee issued regularisation orders on settlement of payment of the differential cost by the allottee.

He said it was apparent from the record that the NAB authorities were well aware of the fact of regularisation of land by the land committee unanimously, yet in a bid to cause harassment, undue arrest and humiliation to the petitioner, the National Accountability Bureau issued the notice.

Barrister Ghumro said that since the petition fell within the deñnition of the accused as provided in Section 5-A of the NAO, 1999, he reasonably apprehended his arrest. He asked the court to grant pre-arrest bail to the petitioner.