Daily Times

The Lahore wing of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) filed a reference against provincial bureaucrat Ahad Cheema in the Ashiana Housing Scheme case.

Ahad Cheema, by misuse of authority and with criminal intent, is accused of awarding a contract of the Ashiana-e-Iqbal housing project of approximately Rs 14 billion to Lahore Casa Developers – a joint-venture which was ineligible for the contract – while serving as the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) director general.

The anti-graft body had launched an investigation against the management, officers, and officials of the Punjab Land Development Company, management and owners of Lahore Casa Developers, officers and officials of the LDA after the government cancelled the award of the Ashiana-e-Iqbal housing scheme to the successful bidder M/S Chaudhry Latif & Sons.

On June 19, an accountability court in Lahore had sent Cheema and chief executive officer of Bismillah Engineering Shahid Shafiq to jail on a judicial remand after their 90-day and 87-day physical remands ended.

Meanwhile, NAB on Friday also summoned former Punjab chief minister Shahbaz Sharif on July 5 in relation with the Punjab Power Development Company (PPDC) probe.

The anti-graft body has accused Shahbaz Sharif’s son-in-law Imran Ali Yousaf of receiving millions of rupees from PPDC’s former chief executive officer Ikram Naveed and possessing assets beyond his known sources of income. PPDC former CEO Ikram Naveed was declared guilty by Anti-Corruption Establishment of embezzling Rs 450 million in 2016. However, he was later made a director of Saaf Pani Company.

The bureau has also filed the request to place the names of 23 individuals on the Exit Control List. The list includes two government officers, two provincial secretaries and presidents of five companies.

Published in Daily Times, June 30^th 2018.