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ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Railways (PR) authorities appear to have been displeased by the National Accountability Bureau’s investigation into the Royal Palm Golf and Country Club scam, believed to be one of the major scandals in the railway’s history.
The club was established in Lahore in 2001 on a prized plot of Railways sold allegedly to a private firm at a throwaway price.
The case was earlier being investigated by the Federal Investigation Agency but it was referred to NAB in 2012.
The case is in the Supreme Court but NAB is looking into the matter as part of a comprehensive investigation into PR’s financial crisis.
“We have repeatedly asked NAB to expedite the investigation into the biggest scam in the railways’ history,” PR’s Director General (legal) Tahir Pervez told Dawn.
He said NAB had been told that the trial in the apex court did not stop the bureau from further investigating the matter.
He said last meeting between PR and NAB officials took place a month ago in which different cases were discussed. “The attitude of NAB officials was disappointing. They did not even know the history of the Royal Palm Golf and Country Club case.”
The case was being discussed or investigated at different levels since 2007. According to an estimate, the land deal has caused Rs10 billion loss to the national exchequer.
According to a report prepared by a standing committee of the National Assembly, land measuring 141 acres was sold at a nominal price by reducing the land utilisation charge from Rs52.43 to only Rs4 per square yard, bringing the total price by Rs4.82 billion.
PR officials said NAB had also been asked to expedite investigation into the Business Train case but nothing had been done so far.
“In this case, the railways has so far suffered a loss of over Rs2.5 billion as the firm running the train is paying Rs2.2 million per day to the PR instead of Rs3.1 million as agreed in the contract.”
The bureau is also investigating some other cases relating to the Railways.
Published in Dawn, August 11th, 2015
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