Seven LDA officials booked on allotting 27 plots fraudulently

LAHORE: Seven officials of Lahore Development Authority (LDA) including a director and two private individuals were booked in a case of wrongly allocating 27 plots worth millions of rupees in the posh locality of the provincial metropolis.

The case was registered by Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) against former director Housing VII Sibtain Raza Qureshi (Now posted in LDA’s legal branch), Faisal Anjum (Deputy Director Revenue, Mujahid Pervaiz Butt, Assistant Director Revenue, Muhammad Aslam, Senior Accountant, Sarfaraz Khokhar, Assistant Director Housing VII, Nadeem Patwari Housing branch and Nisar Patwari, LAC branch, while the two private individuals who were nominated in the case were Zaheer Ahmed and Shahid Munir. The case was registered under Section PCA 5/2/47, PPC 109, 468/471 and 409/420. The FIR was registered against a source report of ACE officer Shehbaz Ahmed.

According to the FIR, copy of which was available with the scribe, Shahid Munir Khokhar, termed as the front man of various political leaders in the FIR, used political influence and with the involvement of LDA officials got duplicate files of various khasra numbers and got 27 plots worth million of rupees in different blocks of Johar Town in the name of Zaheer Ahmed. The FIR stated that Nisar Patwari and Nadeem Patwari with the connivance of Shahid Munir Khokhar and Zaheer Ahmed made bogus awards and also involved the officials of LDA’s accounts branch who prepared forged documents related to payment of dues deposited into the LDA’s account, which in original were not deposited.

The FIR further stated that Director Housing VII Sibtain Raza Qureshi and Assistant Director Sarfraz Khokhar, ignoring the SOPs of verification of duplicate files, gave approval of

allotting 27 plots only in five days. Later, as per the FIR, Zaheer Ahmed transferred some of the plots in the name of Shahid Munir. Sources said late night ACE arrested some of nominated accused.