Bilawal House on the radar over extortion charges

Karachi
Sultan Qamar Siddiqui, vice chairman of the Fishermen's Cooperative Society (FCS), was sent on a 90-day physical remand by an anti-terrorism court (ATC), hours after he was picked up from his house by the Sindh Rangers early on Thursday morning on criminal charges including extortion and corruption.
The remand was granted over the Rangers' claims that Siddiqui had, in a few hours of his arrest, confessed to having sent 70 percent of extortion money collected through the fish harbour to the Bilawal House, besides also being involved in massive corruption cases, facilitating terrorists and smuggling weapons.
The court was informed that the accused was arrested after an investigation revealed his involvement in the mentioned cases. It was further alleged that Siddiqui along with other influential people was abetting Lyari’s gangsters by providing them millions of rupees earned from the fish harbour. The court was further informed that Siddiqui was arrested by Rangers under Section 11-EEEE of the Pakistan Protection Act which granted them the power to arrest anybody on suspicion of a mere involvement in any crime and detain them for 90 days.
Officials who took part in the raid at Siddiqui’s house, situated in Gulistan-e-Jauhar, also claimed to have recovered important documents related to the FCS. FCS Chairman Nisar Murai was believed to have flown abroad allegedly due to fear of arrest.
The arrest came after a series of raids carried out by the Rangers personnel following Director General (DG) Rangers Major General Bilal Akbar’s revelations made on June 11 regarding Sindh’s top political leadership being involved in land grabbing, smuggling, abetting gangsters and militants in Karachi. He had also disclosed that around Rs230 billion were being generated annually by the provincial parties through illegal activities.
The matters were discussed in an apex committee meeting held under the chairmanship of Sindh Chief Minister but were disclosed after a week by the DG Rangers.
On June 16, Rangers personnel had raided the head office of the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) and arrested five officers of the Lines Area Redevelopment Project (LARP) - Waseem Iqbal, Fareed Naseem, Shahid Umar, Ata Abbas and Rashid Hussain - for alleged corruption. The officers were later presented in an accountability court (AC) and handed over to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on a physical remand till June 28.
Objecting to raids on government offices, Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah wrote a letter to the DG Rangers a day earlier, stating the force had exceeded the powers granted to them. The matter got national attention after Pakistan People's Party co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari, in an address at the oath-taking ceremony of the party's KP office-bearers in Islamabad, claimed that ‘generals’ were creating a political crisis in the country and warned them to abstain from doing so.
NAB arrests four officials The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) arrested a former town municipal officer (TMO) of Sujawal district, Mumtaz Ali Zardari, along with two TMOs and an engineer of Sehwan district, in separate operations on Thursday, APP adds.
The arrests were all corruption related as the accused face charges of embezzlement worth millions of rupees.
As per a NAB press release, Zardari, the former Sujawal TMO, was said to be allegedly involved in corruption worth Rs100 million which “he committed through withdrawal of illegal cheques and issuing huge amounts to fake contractors/parties". NAB accused the suspect of falsifying accounts, making fake purchases, and paying salaries to ghost employees while embezzling the budget and not carrying out development work in any scheme.
Identical charges have been levelled against the Sehwan district officials – identified as Zahoor Ahmed Shahani, Rehmatullah Memon and Idrees Memon – with the only difference being the amount, which stands at Rs120 million in their case.
The accountability bureau said it had started multiple investigations into cases while claiming that "sufficient proof has been collected and seized for further proceeding under the law".