ISLAMABAD: Following the Supreme Court decision to summon all record of the Bahria Town, including that of the Defence Housing Authority (DHA), the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Friday suddenly woke up and announced to launch an inquiry into Rs62 billion DHA scam on an application submitted to it more than one year ago.
The NAB announced that its Chairman Admiral (R) Fasih Bokhari has authorised inquiry into Rs62 billion DHA land scam, which was earlier recommended by NAB Rawalpindi for no further action. The application for probing the DHA scam was submitted by Colonel (R) Tariq Kamal last year but instead of any action, it was put in cold storage.
The NAB claimed the application it had received against the DHA management and others included allegations of illegal adjustment of 17,000 kanals (2,125 acres) of land meant for proposed Dadhocha Dam, illegal resale of DHA Phase II (Extension) site to DHA Valley, including illegal extension of DHA Phase II (Extension) area.
The NAB chairman directed DG Operations Shahzad Anwar Bhatti to immediately initiate a transparent inquiry into this scam so that the suffering public could be provided relief. He also directed DG NAB Rawalpindi to conduct a departmental inquiry to ascertain how and why no further action was recommended on the said complaint. The NAB spokesman said the inquiry has been initiated under Section 9 of the National Accountability Bureau Ordinance 1999 relating to the corrupt practices. He said the application of Colonel (R) Tariq Kamal was referred to the NAB Rawalpindi office for the verification of facts but they had recommended no further action.
“But when this application was put before the NAB chairman, he consulted his legal team and they recommended the inquiry under Section 9 of the ordinance,” he added.
Talking to The News, Colonel (R) Tariq Kamal said he had submitted an application to the NAB regarding the DHA affairs and had written in detail how the people were being be fooled. He said the Defence Housing Authority Islamabad has been receiving money for allotment of plots in DHA Phase I Extension, DHA Phase II Extension and DHA Valley since 2009.
He said the people, who had paid for plots, later found that they were fooled, as the land was less than that was required to provide plots to applicants. He said the DHA had transferred Rs62 billion, raised from the public, to the accounts of the Bahria Town in 2009.