Rawalpindi Ring Road case: LHC grants bail to former commissioner, says official

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Thursday granted post-arrest bail to former Rawalpindi commissioner Mahmood Ahmed and Land Acquisition Collector Wasim Tabish in the Rawalpindi Ring Road corruption case.

Justice Shehram Sarwar ordered the release of the accused against furnishing bail bonds worth Rs10m each. Mahmood had been arrested by the Anti-Corruption Establishment on July 14. It is important to note that for the purpose of alignment in the Rawalpindi Ring Road project, neither an approval was sought from the quarters concerned nor any No Objection Certificates (NOCs) were acquired from the Capital Development Authority (CDA) and the National Highway Authority (NHA).

The design of the project was changed and new interchanges were added to the project and thelength of the road was increased from 22km to 68km.

It was reported that the Ring Road’s new alignment benefited more than 50 influential people, real estate dealers and people connected with the project, who had purchased 64,000 Kanals. The changes in the alignment increased the project's cost to Rs 25 billion.