Ex Director General (DG) Parks and Horticulture, Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC), Liaquat Ali Khan Qaimkhani was taken into custody in a fake accounts case, as the National Accountability Bureau accused him of embezzling at least Rs1 billion.
NAB alleged that the former DG, an adviser to Mayor Karachi Waseem Akhtar, headed a group of financial racketeers that included former members of the KMC and senior politicians from different political parties.
Qaimkhani was involved in setting up 71 ghost parks in the metropolis over a period of twenty years, according to a NAB statement issued to media. Qaimkhani also registered fake companies for carrying out 'repairs and maintenance' in these parks, it added.
NAB claims that the luxury items recovered from the residence of Qaimkhani yesterday are worth Rs10 billion, while jewellery items seized from the house are worth Rs150 million -- suggesting that a government officer could have only been able to afford such items if they were embezzling funds.
Just a day earlier, officials of NAB Rawalpindi had acquired a three-day transit remand of Qaimkhani in the Bagh-e-Ibn-e-Qasim scam. Qaimkhani was accused of awarding fake contracts as the DG Parks in Karachi, as well as illegally allotting a plot from land meant for a park in Clifton.
Qaimkhani, currently embroiled in a fake accounts case, was living in an opulent, palatial residence — worth millions, in PECHS society with sprawling lawns and a swimming pool.
His bathroom alone was spread over two marlas. Among valuables recovered from the former DG Parks’ house were eight imported luxury cars, gold bangles and necklaces, diamond jewellery, weapons, and files of millions of rupees worth properties in Lahore and Karachi.
Pleading innocence, the former DG Parks Qaimkhani said all the cases against him were false and staged, and that he would prove the allegations wrong in a court of law. According to Qaimkhani, he hailed from a family of landlords, and had inherited a heap of wealth that was shared among other members of his family.