KARACHI: Rampant corruption in Karimabad Ismailia Multipurpose Cooperative Society under the patronage of officials of the Registrar Cooperative Societies has reached to point of no return.

According to informed sources the illegal appointed and undeserving member has become Secretary of the Committee since last year. He expelled the last year’s elected chairman of Committee for not cooperating in his misappropriation of Society funds and for not appointing internal Auditors of the society to audit the accounts of the society for the years from 2016 to 2023. 

Most attractive funds for the secretary’s embezzlement projects are being generated through re-construction of buildings in the society premises, where millions of rupees are collected for six story flats and the shops at ground floor. Under this project the committee has collected half million rupees for each booking while the balance to be paid upon confirmation of the balloting result. 

If a person is failed to pay the remaining amount 4.5 million rupees within two days, his initial amount of booking Rs.500,000/- will be forfeited and the society has reserved the right to auction the said flat. If his name does not come in draw, he would collect his refundable amount of half million and will not further claim on his booking. The secretary through such harsh terms & conditions is attempting to sell out the precious flats and shops to the outsiders and non-member parties or builders’ mafia on lucrative amounts and pocketing huge sums for his own benefit.

The sources said that illegally elected/ blue eyed Imran Arwan Punjwani Secretary who committed fraud and friends of fraud Secretary are solely responsible in messing up our society land which was gifted to original allottees of old Karimabad 425 flat holders by revising plan in 1998 for further unnecessary construction to most likely cover up misappropriations of members funds from 1991-1998.

The Sindh High Court (SHC) five years back in 2019 had observed that corruption had spoiled Pakistan’s image and was resulting in ever-increasing poverty, unemployment and hunger. These remarks were made while hearing bail petitions in Rs.800 million corruption cases pertaining to the sale of amenity land.

Dismissing the bail petitions of former office bearers of the Karimabad Ismailia Multipurpose Cooperative Society in the corruption case, a division bench of the SHC, comprising Justice Mohammad Iqbal Kalhoro and Justice Amjad Ali Sahito, had observed that eight acres of land was gifted to the society’s management for welfare of the people but the management sold those amenity plots against a large sum of money.

Hameedullah Sheikh, Sikandar Ali, Mohammad Ali, Pervaiz Akhtar Khan, Syed Mazhar Ali Shah and 10 others were booked by the National Accountability Bureau, which alleged that the society’s management misused the land for amenity purposes by turning it into a commercial land, which caused losses to the national exchequer to the tune of Rs800 million.

The SHC observed that it had been established from the documentary evidence that the Aga Khan Ismailia Charitable Trust had gifted a plot, ST-2 Block 3, situated in KDA Scheme 16, FB Area through a gift deed in March 1992 for a building to be constructed thereon and the possession thereof was also handed over to the society to run the affairs for the benefits of their members who were residents of the society.

Published in The Daily National Courier, May, 31 2024

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