Inquiry will be instituted in HDA plots scam, says minister.

HYDERABAD -- The Sindh local government department has decided to institute an inquiry into the allotment of 29 plots worth tens of millions of rupees to certain bureaucrats and officials of the district administration and provincial departments by outgoing director general of the Hyderabad Development Authority (HDA), Mohammad Sohail, without going for mandatory legal procedures.

'Yes, an inquiry is being ordered. It will either be conducted by Sindh chief secretary or local government secretary...', said LG Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah while speaking to Dawn over phone. He said that a notification to this effect would be issued accordingly.

The official list of 29 officers and officials to whom the ex-DG had allotted the plot carries the name of LG Secretary Najam Shah as well.

Mr Sohail was posted as HDA's director general in Sept 2021 after Ghulam Mohammad Kaimkhani was transferred. A Sindh LG source told Dawn that Mr Sohail had approached the LG minister a few days back to seek permission for putting up the matter of the plots before HDA's governing body. But the minister is said to have declined his request and, rather asked him why he [Mr Sohail] has done all this.

DC assumes charge of director general amid controversy

Under two notifications issued by the Sindh government on May 18, Mr Sohail was repatriated to the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation and posted as the director general of Malir Development Authority. However, the Sindh High Court on June 7 suspended both the notifications on a petition challenging the transfer and posting.

While approving the allotments without going for due process, Mr Sohail had gone an extra mile by even issuing provisional challans pertaining to the 600, 400, 240 and 120 sq-yds plots in Gulshan-i-Quaid scheme to LG Secretary Najam Shah, Hyderabad Commissioner Nadeemur Rehman Memon, DIG Pir Mohammad Shah, SSP Sajid Sadozai, DC Fuad Soomro two assistant commissioners and certain officers of the LG department and HDA, besides himself.

A three-acre piece of land was carved out in Gulshan-i-Quaid scheme to accommodate the officers, officials and functionaries of his choice.

Mr Sohail did it without placing the matter before HDA's governing body. The last meeting of the governing body

was held on Nov 24, 2021 to take up 16 items. However, 10 items were taken up...