Ahad Cheema sent on judicial remand

LAHORE: An accountability court on Tuesday sent former Lahore Development Authority (LDA) director general Ahad Cheema and chief executive officer (CEO) of Bismillah Engineering Shahid Shafiq to jail on a judicial remand in the Ashiana Housing Scheme case.

National Accountability Bureau (NAB) officials produced Cheema, the prime accused in the Ashiana Housing Scheme case, and Shafiq before the court on Tuesday amid tight security. Accountability Court Judge Najamul Hasan was informed by NAB officials that Cheema was arrested on February 21 after the bureau detected illegalities and corruption worth billions in a deal between Paragon Housing Society and Punjab Land Development Company to construct the Ashiana-e-Iqbal Housing Society.

Punjab Land Development Company signed an agreement on January 20, 2015 and 16,000 poor citizens paid Rs 61 million for the Ashiana Housing Scheme, however, the project was not close to completion even after three years, the NAB officials told the court. They alleged that Cheema awarded a contract of the Ashiana-e-Iqbal housing project of approximately Rs 14 billion to Lahore Casa Developers — a joint-venture which was ineligible for the contract. Owing to the ineligibility of the companies, the government had to bear a loss of over Rs 64.5 million, the NAB officials added. After hearing the arguments of the NAB officials, the court sent Cheema and Shafiq to jail on judicial remands after their 90-day and 87-day physical remands ended.