Judge defers announcement of order in Bahria Town Clifton land case.

KARACHI -- An accountability court on Wednesday deferred announcement of an order on applications challenging maintainability of a reference against former Karachi mayor Mustafa Kamal and others about alleged illegal allotment of prime commercial land to Bahria Town for a multistorey building.

The National Accountability Bureau has booked Pak Sarzameen Party chairman Kamal and 10 others over alleged illegal allotment of around 5,500 square yards commercial land to the real estate giant for the project in Clifton.

On Wednesday, administrative judge of the accountability courts Farid Anwar Qazi was set to pronounce his judgement on the identical pleas filed by Mr Kamal and a builder, Mohammad Dawood.

The judge deferred announcement on the pleas and fixed the matter on Nov 19.

Earlier, Mr Kamal and eight other suspects appeared before the court on bail, while a defence counsel informed that former district coordination officer Fazlur Rehman could not appear before the court as he was unwell and requested the court to grant him exemption from appearance.

Two other nominated suspects, Zain Malik, the son-in-law of real estate tycoon Malik Riaz, and Mohammad Yaqoob, associated with M/s DJ Builders and Developers, failed to turn up as they were out of the country.

In the applications, the defence counsel argued that the federal anti-graft watchdog had failed to fulfil mandatory legal requirements and filed the reference against their clients without completing the due legal process.

The judge deferred announcement of its order on an application filed on behalf of Zain Malik, who sought to be represented by his counsel in the present case, since he was said to be under treatment in London.

In June, the court had admitted the reference against the then city mayor Mustafa Kamal, then DCO Karachi Fazlur Rehman, then executive...