Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Establishment Secretary Tahir Shahbaz has rejected the mercy appeal of former Pakistan Housing Authority Foundation (PHAF) managing director Muhammad Ilyas. He is accused of illegal allotment of luxury flats.

The secretary also vowed to bring the multi-billion corruption scandal to its “logical end”, a source told Daily Times.

The scam was cooked up during the tenure of federal minister Akram Durrani.

Ilyas was alleged that he had doled out 510 luxurious flats in Sector G10 and G11 to his cronies at the cost of the deserving applicants.

Document revealed that these luxurious flats were constructed for bureaucrats, but Ilyas allotted them to his blue-eyed officers in June 2016 through a non-transparent balloting.

The affected officers requested Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to take action against the accused.

Nawaz made Ilyas an OSD. He also directed Establishment Secretary Tahir Shahbaz to hold inquiry against the accused and all his cronies in the Housing Ministry and identify the responsible officers.

Shahbaz made Ilyas an OSD on 29 July and formed a committee to probe the charges.

Source said Ilyas wrote a letter to the secretary and sought revocation of an inquiry against him on humanitarian grounds and said suspension of BPS-21 officer is too strict. He also urged the secretary to withdraw the inquiry against him because he is ‘clean’.

Ilyas said that when he joined PHAF it was at the verge of collapse, but he worked hard and constructed 6,000 flats for the government employees in various sectors of the capital. He admitted that if the balloting of 510 luxurious flats is not conducted in a transparent way then it should be cancelled immediately.

The source added that an inquiry against him had already been completed and the report would be sent to the PM. The report is likely to be sent to FIA too. The case could also be sent to NAB in the light of the inquiry report.