LWMC ex-MD can attend training during remand

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court Thursday allowed former managing director of Lahore Waste Management Company Waseem Ajmal to attend National Management Course during his physical remand with the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

Earlier, a prosecutor told a division bench that the director general of the NAB-Lahore had no objection if the suspect was allowed to attend the course. However, he said the NAB would expect cooperation by the suspect in investigation of the Rs1 billion scam of the LWMC.

The bench headed by Justice Ali Baqar Najafi accepted the petition and allowed Mr Ajmal to attend the training course. The bench said that an officer of the NAB would accompany the petitioner during the training course.

The National Accountability Bureau had arrested Ajmal, who also served as chief executive officer of Punjab Saaf Pani Company, in Rs1 billion scam of the LWMC on November 19.

The anti-corruption watchdog alleged that then chief minister Shahbaz Sharif awarded the contract in question to a Turkish company-Al-Bayrak. It said the contract on inflated rates caused a loss of over Rs1 billion to the national exchequer. It said Ajmal being MD and the LWMC team leader held a meeting on April 26, 2014, in which he deliberately concealed details of the contract from other board members.

The NAB also alleged that Ajmal was found involved in illegal payments of $96,000 in the name of fake exemptions. It said the LWMC initiated tendering process for outsourcing of Solid Waste Management Services in Rawalpindi and Murree in 2012.

Mr Ajmal in his petition before the LHC pleaded that he was due to attend the national management course for his promotion in BS-21. He said the course would continue until December 20. He sought permission to attend the course as his fundamental right.