Pakpattan shrine land case

SC reappoints JIT chief Orders submission of ToRs in 10 days

By Our correspondent

LAHORE: The Supreme Court on Thursday formed a new Joint Investigation Team to probe former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s role in the transfer of Pakpattan shrine’s land to Dewan Ghulam Qutab in 1985.

Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, while heading a three-judge bench, had appointed National Counter-Terrorism Authority Director-General Khaliq Dad Lak to lead the Supreme Court-mandated JIT. However, on Thursday, Lak excused himself from the role citing personal reasons.

Following this, Chief Justice Nisar named Punjab Anti-Corruption Director-General Dr Hussain Asghar as the new JIT head, tasked to probe the Pakpattan shrine land case.

Lak and other members of the JIT were present in the court when the bench took up the case. The chief justice said he already heard the concerns of Mr Lak in chamber and the court would not force him to head the JIT. However, the chief justice observed that the court had showed its trust in Mr Lak by assigning him the task. “Such people are so fortunate,” he added.

When asked to propose his replacement, Mr Lak suggested the name of Director General of Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) Punjab Hussain Asghar. The chief justice remarked that Mr Asghar was also a man of integrity and regretted to forget his name while constituting the JIT earlier.

Finally, the bench appointed the ACE DG as head of the JIT and directed all of its members to finalise within 10 days the terms of reference (ToRs) to investigate the matter. The bench would resume hearing on Jan 8, 2019.

Other members of the JIT are from Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Intelligence Bureau (IB). The team is empowered to co-opt more members for assistance.

In his reply, Mr Sharif had requested that the notice issued to him be discharged in the interest of justice. He stated that from the record collected from documents submitted by the Punjab government in the SC, it transpired that the Auqaf Department, vide its notification of Jan 17, 1961, took over the administration, management and maintenance of the shrine.

Subsequently, with the approval of the then governor of Punjab, the Auqaf Department, Lahore, issued another notification on Dec 17, 1969 for taking over additional land that later resulted in litigation between the parties.

The reply stated that Dewan Ghulam Qutabuddin, Sajjada-Nashin of the shrine of Baba Farid Ganj Shakar, moved the application in June 1986 to the then prime minister through the governor of Punjab, stating therein that the disputed property, taken over by the Auqaf Department, was his personal and ancestral property and, therefore, the same be returned to him. His application ultimately landed in the office of the Punjab chief minister.

Earlier, the SC formed a JIT to probe the case pertaining to the transfer of Pakpattan shrine land in violation of an LHC order when Nawaz Sharif was the chief minister of Punjab.

A three-member bench, headed by CJ Nisar, heard the suo motu case regarding transfer of 14,000 kanals of Pakpattan shrine land to Dewan Ghulam Qutab in 1985.

The former premier is accused of ordering the withdrawal of notification of Dec 17, 1969, and allegedly allotting the Auqaf land to Qutab in violation of a high court order in 1986.