Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Public Accounts Committee was informed that former Chairman Employess Old age Benefit Institute (EOBI) Zafar Gondal, with connivance of Pakistan Tehrik Insaf’s (PTI) leader and property developer Aleem Khan, DHA administration and son in law of former chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Chaudhry had looted Rs 34 billion by purchasing 18 properties from different cities of the country at exorbitant rates.

Meeting of PAC was held here at parliament house on Tuesday with Syed Khurshid Shah in the chair to discuss the financial matters relating to corruption stricken EOBI department which is now on the brink of financial collapse.

It also surfaced during the course of the discussion that the former management of EOBI had purchased 500 luxury vehicles at the cost of 480 million rupees for 400 employees with the consent of then minister Syed Khurshid Shah, who is now the opposition leader and PAC chairman. The meeting was told that 400 employees who were inducted in EOBI during the Zardari regime were shown the door owing to their illegal induction on the direction of the Supreme Court. Now, these employees have refused to return these vehicles to the government and have had them transferred in their own names.

The EOBI incumbent chairman Saleh Farooqi also briefed the meeting about the challenges the department is facing and submitted the details of the corruption scam cooked up during the last two regimes of Zardari and Musharraf. He also apprised the PAC meeting that the Supreme Court had taken suo moto notice of this corruption as the case was still pending in the court, awaiting the report of an independent evaluator.

He told the meeting that former chairman Zafar Gondal purchased 18 properties worth more than 50 billion rupees and now an independent evaluating company submitted that 15 properties out of 18 were purchased on exorbitant rates, causing massive public loss. Farooqi told the PAC meeting that Zafar Gondal entered into a deal with Defence Housing Authority to purchase a plot value of Rs 22 billion rupees in DHA Rawalpindi Phase 1 and 2. The cost of each plot was 3.6 million rupees.

Farooqi revealed that the real beneficiary of this deal was Bahria Town management as these plots were actually in the owner ship of Bahria Town housing society. The officials revealed that these plots were undeveloped, although the management of DHA had received 22 billion from EOBI for providing developed plots.

According to a paper s submitted to PAC, former chairman Zafar Gondal bought dozens of plots from River Edge housing scheme Lahore at a cost of Rs 2.6 billion rupees as this housing society was owned by Aleem Khan. Aleem Khan signed an agreement with EOBI to provide developed plots but he allegedly handed over undeveloped plot and breached the agreement.

Former Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudry’s son-in-law also signed a deal with Zafar Gondal for providing plots from Eden Garden Housing Society Lahore and received a sum many times over the market price.

The meeting was informed that Zafar Gondal purchased a plot measuring 12 kanals from Gulberg Lahore and another plot measuring 41 kanals from Mouza Sanjial Lahore for the purpose of construction of a shopping plaza worth billions of rupees. Another commercial plot from Lower Mall Lahore near Urdu Bazar was bought by previous management at a cost of Rs 85 million and some properties from Chakwal and Kalar Kahar were also purchased without observing government rules and regulations.

The management was advised to incorporate this corruption scam into other cases pending in the Supreme Court and to recover the loss from its beneficiaries.