NAB gives Shujaat, Pervaiz clean chit in plots’ probe

LAHORE: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Friday gave clean chit to Pakistan Muslim League-Q leaders Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Punjab Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi in a pending inquiry pertaining to Lahore Development Authority (LDA) plots.

The veteran politicians, who are currently in an alliance with Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government, were facing an inquiry over allegedly causing a loss to the national exchequer by influencing LDA officials to exempt more than 21 kanals of land and 28 plots measuring 10 marlas each in a private housing society in Lahore.

NAB Chairman Javed Iqbal allowed withdrawing the inquiries pertaining to huge losses to the national exchequer after the watchdog's Lahore chapter recommended the same.

Subsequently, NAB authorities filed an application before the accountability court to formally shelve the inquiries.

The bureau had launched a probe into the matter in 2000 and found that they allegedly purchased the land through their front men, including Mirza Aslam Baig and Muhammad Nawaz. However, investigators failed to make a breakthrough in the case for almost 15 years. Till 2017, the inquiry was transferred to five officials but to no avail. Finally on November 13, 2017, the inquiry was transferred to Waqarul Haq who concluded that the investigation should be closed.

Meanwhile, both the political leaders had appeared before the NAB authorities a few times in 2017 and 2018.

The investigator said that the Chaudhry brothers appeared before a NAB investigation team on November 6, 2018, and filled a questionnaire related to details of their properties, besides answering questions for 90 minutes. He said that letters were sent out to fill in any gaps that may have been left during the investigation or in the questionnaire filled on November 6.

During the investigations, the accountability watchdog found that the people who had been mentioned as “front men” were “employees” of the Chaudhry brothers and they had purchased the plots for themselves. The reference mentioned that Mirza Aslam Baig had used the residential address of Chaudhry brothers while purchasing the plots.

The NAB authorities, according to the watchdog, could not find any concrete evidence, documented or oral; therefore, it had decided to close the inquiry based on a source report.