NAB arrests Paragon City director

LAHORE: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Lahore, on Wednesday arrested Paragon City Director Qaiser Amin Butt, accused of illegally launching a housing society and cheating the public at large.

According to the NAB, Qaiser Amin Butt, in connivance with Nadeem Zia and others, launched an illegal housing scheme, Paragon City (Pvt) Ltd, in 2005 in Lahore on the basis of forged and fabricated documents along with alleged approvals from Aziz Bhatti Town TMA.

Moreover, in 2013, all TMA approved housing schemes were transferred to the Lahore Development Authority (LDA), however, the record of Paragon Housing Scheme was intentionally not shifted to the LDA by the accused persons, NAB said.

The Paragon City Housing Society has so far no approval from LDA, thus, its Director Qaiser Amin Butt being the beneficial owner is running the said housing scheme unlawfully. Accused Qaiser Amin Butt, as being the director of M/s Paragon City, aided, connived, assisted and abetted accused Nadeem Zia and others in commission of offences of cheating public at large and misappropriation of funds collected from the general public, in addition to subsequent diversion of funds for establishing new business concerns for their personal gains.

Moreover, accused Qaiser Amin Butt along with others issued allotment letters of commercial and residential plots to general public on the basis of land which was not owned by the Paragon Housing Scheme. During the bargain, the funds collected from general public were kept for personal use of alleged accused persons instead of providing timely development and possession of plots to the allottees of the Paragon City, according to the NAB.

Accused Qaisar Amin Butt would be produced before an accountability court on Thursday (today) for getting his physical remand. NAB had started an investigation in November 2017 into a mega land scam involving Paragon Housing Society in Lahore and the Punjab Land Development Company (PLDC).

Paragon City is allegedly owned by Khwaja Saad Rafique. The bureau had written to the PLDC to submit record regarding its project Ashiana Iqbal, Lahore, for which an agreement was signed between the PLDC and Anhui Construction Engineering Group owned by Director Paragon Exchange Ali Sajjad, Bismillah Engineering Company owned by the chief executive of Paragon City Nadeem Zia and Sparco Group.

Furthermore, the bureau had arrested Muneer Zia and Umar Zia, brothers of Paragon City Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Nadeem Zia. However, Nadeem Zia is still at large and most probably has fled the country.