Ashiana-e-Iqbal Housing reference: Court calls more witnesses to record statements

LAHORE: An accountability court on Monday summoned two more witnesses to record their statements in the Ashiana-e-Iqbal Housing reference against NA Opposition Leader Shahbaz Sharif and others.

The court of Accountability Judge Amjad Nazir Chaudhry adjourned the hearing by May 4. The nominated accused in the reference marked their attendance while Advocate Nawaz appeared on behalf of Shahbaz Sharif. The court directed the NAB again to submit a reply on an acquittal application of Bilal Qidwai, a co-accused in the reference.

The bureau had a filed reference against Shahbaz Sharif, former principal secretary Fawad Hassan Fawad, Nadeem Zia, Kamran Kayani, brother of former Army Chief Ashfaque Parvez Kayani, Munir Zia, Khalid Hussain, Ali Sajid, Shahid Chaudhry, Ahad Khan Cheema, Bilal Kidwai, Shahid Shafique, Shahid Shafique, Imtiaz Haider, Israr Saeed and Arif Butt. The court had framed charges against the accused except Nadeem Zia and Kamran Kayani as both are proclaimed offenders.

As per reference details, the NAB had accused Shahbaz Sharif of misusing his authority that resulted in failure of the project, depriving 61,000 applicants of housing units. The NAB alleged that Shahbaz, in connivance with former DG LDA Ahad Cheema, awarded the contract to a proxy. Moreover, Shahbaz usurped the powers of the Board of Directors of the Punjab Land Development Company (PLDC) and transferred the project of Ashiana-e-Iqbal from PLDC to LDA. The illegal acts of former chief minister caused a loss to the state exchequer amounting to Rs 660 million and also led to an escalation of the project cost by approximately Rs 3.39 billion, the reference read.

According to the National Accountability Bureau, the Ashiana Housing project was awarded to Chaudhry Latif and Sons after approval from the PLDC Board of Directors and through open bidding. The contract was awarded to the said company on January 24, 2013 and a sum of Rs 75 million was paid to the construction firm as advance mobilisation. Chaudhry Latif and Sons started their construction work and no other bidder challenged the award of the contract within 15 days as per PEPRA rules. However, according to NAB on February 25, 2013, Shahbaz illegally ordered an inquiry on a bogus complaint and constituted an inquiry committee headed by Tariq Bajwa to look into any wrongdoing in awarding the contract. Bajwa, the then finance secretary, completed the audit and submitted his report on March 5, 2013. As per the committee report, the contract was awarded as per PEPRA rules with some minor irregularities. The NAB claims that Shahbaz illegally assumed the powers of PLDC Board of Directors and referred the case to the Anti-Corruption Establishment with the help of co-accused Fawad Hassan Fawad. Moreover, according to the NAB investigation, the bogus complaint was filed by the Canpro Services Private Limited which paid bribe worth millions to Fawad, the then secretary implementation, to cancel the contract.

The Canpro Services Private Limited is said to be owned by Kamran Kayani. The NAB has alleged that Shahbaz, while chairing a meeting, illegally ordered the transfer of Ashiana project to the LDA from PLDC which was constituted to complete projects like Ashiana and only its Board of Directors had the authority to take such a decision. After getting the project, the LDA handed over the Ashiana project to Bismillah Engineering, which is a proxy company of the Paragon City allegedly owned by Saad Rafique.