ACE to grill Nawaz on Pakpattan shrine land

LAHORE: The Anti-Corruption Establishment Punjab has decided to investigate former prime minster and PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif in a case pertaining to the Pakpattan shrine land allotment.

The anti-corruption department has requested the jail authorities to let its officials to record the statement of the former prime minister in the land allotment case on July 30.

As per a letter available with the News, the ACE constituted a committee consisting of Ghazanfar, Assistant Director Investigation ACE Sahiwal, Rashid Maqbool, Assistant Director Legal ACE Sahiwal and Zahid Ali, Inspector HQ ACE Sahiwal. The ACE has written the letter to the superintendent jail to make necessary arrangements to record Nawaz’s statement.

It is pertinent here to mention that the JIT had constituted a team to probe the Pakpattan shrine land case against Nawaz, holding him responsible for “illegally transferring” the shrine land when he was the chief minister of Punjab in 1985.

Last year, on December 13, the Supreme Court of Pakistan had constituted a JIT to probe the illegal transfer of 14,394 Kanals belonging to the Auqaf Department in the Pakpattan district. After Partition, Dewan Ghulam Qutab and his family was the ‘owners’ of the shrine’s land as per the revenue record from 1947 to 1958. The family sold pieces of the land to different people until January 1, 1970, when the Punjab government notified the Auqaf Department as the rightful owner of the land and the Dewans the custodian of the shrine. Later, the Dewans moved the Lahore High Court but the case was decided against them.

In 1986, the government withdrew its 1970 notification and the Dewans reciprocated by withdrawing their appeal before the Lahore High Court against the decision. With this, the Dewans resumed their land selling business and the Revenue Department issued ownership rights (Fard) to all buyers. In the meantime, a 1981 case regarding 17 Marlas filed in a civil court reached the Supreme Court of Pakistan by 2015. The apex court chief justice took a suo motu notice of the land deals of the shrine and summoned officials of the Revenue and Auqaf Departments and the Dewans. After some hearings, the SC declared the notification of August 28, 1986 illegal and nullified all land deals done since then. The decision reportedly affected 100,000 residents of different localities. The Dewans filed a review petition last year in defence of their right to sell the land with the SC against its 2015 decision, which is pending since then. Former chief justice Mian Saqib Nisar, during his visit to the Baba Farid shrine in 2018, had promised justice in the case when dozens of the affected people raised slogans to get his attention towards their plight.