NAB summons Shahbaz over inquiry into ‘Ashiana Housing Scheme’

LAHORE: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has summoned Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif for January 22 to question him regarding his alleged illegal acts in the affairs of Punjab Land Development Company (PLDC) due to which over Rs 1 billion loss was caused to the national exchequer.

According to a NAB official, the PLDC a few years ago had signed an agreement with Bismillah Engineering and Sparco (front companies of Paragon Housing Society) for construction of 6,700 apartments on 1,000 kanals [Ashiana-e-Iqbal housing scheme]. In lieu of this construction, he said, some 2,000 kanals were to be given to these two companies.

Furthermore, the official said, these companies were to be given land corresponding to their construction work whereas the entire piece of land was given in possession of these companies without any construction work. The NAB had initiated the probe into the affairs of the PLDC and its dealing with certain construction companies in November last year after receiving a number of complaints regarding alleged illegal deals involving 3,000 kanals of government land.

The NAB issued the summon notice to the chief minister on January 16 and directed him to appear before a combined investigation team (CIT) at Thokar Niaz Baig, Lahore on January 22 (Monday) to record his statement. He has also been asked to bring the complete record of the PLDC affairs.

The NAB notice states, “As the inquiry against management/officers of Punjab Land Development Company (PLDC), management/owners of M/s Lahore Casa Developers (J.V) and officials of Lahore Development Authority (LDA) has revealed that prima facie Shahbaz Sharif, being the Chief Minister Punjab, had ordered certain illegal acts in sheer violation of laid down procedures for functioning of PLDC due to which the company bore a huge financial loss.”

According to the notice, the NAB pointed out that Shahbaz had ordered cancellation of award of contract of Aashiana-e-Iqbal to successful bidder M/s Ch Latif and Sons, leading to award of contracts to M/s Lahore Casa Developers (JV), a proxy group of M/s Paragon City (Pvt) Limited, which resulted into a loss of Rs 193 million approximately.

“You directed PLDC to assign the project of Aashiana-e-Iqbal to LDA resulting into award of contracts to M/s Lahore Casa Developers (JV), thus causing loss of Rs 715 million approximately and ultimately failure of the project,” the notice reads.

It also says that the chief minister had also directed PLDC to award consultancy services of Aashiana-e-Iqbal project to M/s Engineering Consultancy Services Punjab (ECSP) for Rs 192 million approximately but its actual cost was Rs 35 million as quoted by NESPAK.

In the ongoing probe, the NAB officials have already recorded the statements of PLDC, LDA and Paragon City officials.

When contacted by The News to know whether the CM Punjab would appear before the NAB, Punjab government spokesperson Malik Muhammad Ahmed Khan said Shahbaz firmly believed in rule of law and had been appearing before the JIT in the Panama Papers case and before the NAB inquiries in the past.

Without clarifying whether the chief minister would appear before NAB or not, the spokesperson said, “The NAB inquiry does not mean that anything has been proved.” The NAB, he added, had all legal rights to investigate any matter of national interest and the Punjab government had already been cooperating with the anti-graft body and would continue to do so in the future as well.

Meanwhile, the Geo News reported that NAB Chairman Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal has taken notice of increase in the cost of Kachhi Canal project from Rs 30 billion to Rs 210 billion, ordering enquiry against the officials concerned.