Railways Golf Club land scam: NAB wants Gen (r) Qazi on ECL

ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Saturday asked the Interior Ministry to place former minister for Railways and Communication and former chief of ISI Lt Ge (R) Javed Ashraf Qazi on the Exit Control List (ECL).

Besides him, the NAB also asked the Interior Ministry to put ex-director Marketing Pakistan Railways Khalid Naqi and Director Hussain construction Muhammad Ramzan on ECL.

Reasoning for putting them on the ECL in a letter to Interior Ministry, the NAB gave a reason that it is alleged that the accused in connivance with each other illegally awarded the lease of 140 acres Railways Golf Club land of Rs2 billion and the investigation was going on against them.

It is to be mentioned that NAB in its meeting of Executive Board gave approval of filling a reference against Javed Ashraf Qazi, ex-secretary Ministry of Railways/chairman Railways Major General (R) Saeed-ul-Zafar, ex-general manager M&S Pakistan Railways Major General (R) Hamid Hassan Butt.

The other accused in the reference were General Manager Operations Pakistan Railways Iqbal Samad Khan, ex-member Finance Pakistan Railways Khursheed Ahmed Khan, ex-director Pakistan Railways Brig (R) Akhtar Ali Baig, Ex-Superintendent Pakistan Railways Abdul Ghaffar, Director M/s Husnain Constructions Muhammad Ramazan Sheikh, Chief Executive Unicon Consulting Services Pervez Latif, Director MAX Corp Development Malaysia Datu Muhammad Kasa bin Aziz and others for allegedly misusing of authority to cause a loss of over Rs2 billion to the national exchequer.

Meanwhile, NAB announced that it would continue performing its duties in accordance with law by upholding transparency and merit despite adverse circumstances as threats, protests and browbeating could not stop it from performing its legal obligations.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Saturday night rejected the Punjab government claim and said that Lahore Development Authority (LDA) former director general (DG) Ahad Cheema was apprehended as per law after completion of all formalities on the basis of solid evidence against him.

Meanwhile, in a rebuttal, the NAB stated that Punjab Land Development Company, (a company owned by GoP) through an agreement dated 20.01.2015 assigned the project of Ashiana-e-Iqbal (a low cast housing project of government of Punjab) to LDA. Accused, Ahad Cheema, being LDA DG, by misusing of authority and with criminal intent prepared, processed, recommended, presented and got approved fraudulent and illegal Request for Proposal and bidding documents to grant undue and illegal benefit by awarding contract of Ashiana-e-Iqbal Housing Project of Rs14 billion approximately to M/s Casa Developers, a joint venture of three firms/companies namely M/s Bismillah Engineering Services Co, M/s Sparco Construction Company and M/s China First Metallurgical Group Co Ltd. In the said joint venture/consortium, M/s Bismillah Engineering Services Co, a C4 Class company had 90 percent shareholding and was not eligible for the contract as its maximum limit of contract was Rs150.00 million as laid down by Pakistan Engineering Council. While M/s Sparco Construction Company and M/s China First Metallurgical Group Co had only 9 percent and 1 percent shareholdings in the JV. That the accused awarded contract to M/s Lahore Casa Developers on 24.03.2015, under Public Private Partnership mode which is governed by PPP Act, 2014. As per section 14 (d), (h) and (j), it was mandatory to obtain exact shareholding of all firms in the joint venture, at the prequalification stage so as to ensure award of contract to eligible JV. However, accused in connivance with the members of JV and others, accepted an MoU between members of the JV consortium having no mention of respective shareholding in order to maliciously conceal the technical and financial capability of the firm having maximum shareholding. The accused awarded the contract to M/s LahoreCasa Developers by fraudulently awarding scoring points on the basis of technical and financial data of M/s Sparco Construction Company, which had only 9 percent shareholding in the JV. Accused in connivance with the accused contractors falsely represented M/s Sparco Construction Company as lead member of the JV, whereas, as per agreement dated 18.03.2015, the actual lead member of JV was M/s Bismillah Engineering Services Co which was ineligible for the contract. Accused with mala fide intentions did not comply with the direction of PPP Steering Committee, a legal forum constituted under PPP Act, 2014, regarding restriction on dilution of lead member shareholdings which caused dishonest loss to state exchequer. Accused with criminal intent continued the process of awarding the contract even after submission of JV agreement by Lahore Casa Developers which revealed the actual shareholdings of JV members and was in sheer violation of documents submitted at pre-qualification stage. The aforesaid act of accused has caused loss to national exchequer as the contractor willfully failed even to initiate Ashiana-e-Iqbal Project since last three years. Almost 61,000 poor applicants submitted Rs60. million approximately as processing fee since many years for allotment of houses, government incurred an amount of Rs190 million, and the contractor M/s Casa Develops had also caused loss in form of liquidation damages of Rs455 million approximately.

In addition to that, the cost of the project has also increased by hundreds of millions of rupees. Director properties of M/s Paragon City (Pvt) Limited and a close aide/associate of accused Nadeem Zia, received an amount Rs30.900 million approximately in his bank account No 0010010627750021 maintained at Allied Bank Limited, Shadipura Branch, Lahore from the bank account No 0010013691650013 of M/s Paragon City (Pvt) Limited maintained at DHA Lahore and same was paid for purchase of land measuring 32 kanal situated at Mouza Tedha, tehsil and District Lahore. The said land was transferred in the name of accused Ahad Cheema, the then LDA DG and the close members of his family namely Ahmad Saud Cheema (Brother), Sadia Mansoor (Sister) and Ahmad Hassan (cousin).