ISLAMABAD, Oct 27: The Pakistan Muslim League (N) on Sunday accused federal minister for communication and railways Javed Ashraf Qazi of receiving kickbacks and commissions worth Rs5 billion from the illegal lease of railways lands and making purchases without inviting open tenders.

Speaking at a news conference here, party’s information secretary Siddiqul Farooq said he would also expose financial irregularities of other ministers in due course of time. He said most of these ministers were vying for senate ticket.

Farooq said he had sent a letter to the NAB chairman, giving details of the involvement of the federal minister and secretary railways Saeeduz Zafar, general manager Hamid Hasan Butt, deputy director marketing Sumera Hameed, and a Lahore-based contractor Rashid Kalia in the embezzlement.

In his letter Farooq pointed out that the minister allotted 80 plots across the country on a 33-year lease to Fazal Qadeer Ajmi for setting up CNG stations without calling national or international tenders nor pre-qualification was ensured.

The terms of lease were unbelievable as rent of a plot measuring 2,300 sq-yd at I.I.Chundrigar Road in Karachi was fixed at Rs60 per sq-yd, while no CNG station had been built on any of these plots in two years of the deal.

Similarly, Lahore golf course spreading over 125 acres was leased out to Ajmi with a licence to bulldoze officers’ bungalows on canal bank. A Thai firm acted as front for Ajmi in the deal.

The PML leader asked the NAB to put the names of the minister, his family members and accomplices on the exit control list, besides freezing all their movable and immovable assets.

He announced that the PML(N) would soon file references with the NAB against the minister and his coterie of corrupt retired army officials although it had little hope that the bureau would take action.

He described the purchase of slippers and track as dubious as the doubling of track would take several years.

This contract was awarded as the minister forced the officers who had expressed reservations on its contracting to Kalia’s parent company in Vienna.

Similarly, purchase of coaches from China was also illegal as the Pakistani factories were fully competent to manufacture the coaches according to domestic requirements.