LAHORE: An accountability court on Wednesday indicted three people, including two key suspects – Hammad Arshad and retired Brig Khalid Nazir Butt — in the Rs16 billion DHA City (Lahore) land acquisition scam.

The court directed the NAB to present its witnesses on the next hearing as both the suspects denied charges brought against them in a corruption reference and opted for contesting the trial.

The NAB alleged that Globaco (pvt) Ltd of Hammad Arshad and his brother Murad Arshad had secured a contract from DHA-EME administration in 2009 to acquire 25,000 kanal land for the establishment of DHA City. However, the company despite failing to acquire the land, issued allotment letters to buyers and collected around Rs15.47bn from the public.

Hammad Arshad allegedly transferred the amount to his personal accounts and used it for some other business.

The bureau had also alleged involvement of Elysium Holdings Pakistan Limited, owned by Kamran Kayani, a brother of former army chief Gen Pervez Kayani, besides some other companies, in the scam. Kamran Kayani is still out of the country.

The second indicted suspect, Butt, was project director of DHA City, who allegedly misused his office and extended illegal favours to Hammad Arshad.

The NAB said Butt signed a vague contract with the Globaco Company and also allowed it to launch the project without acquisition of land and getting the master plan approved from the DHA’s executive board.

The court will resume the hearing on Dec 22.

Published in Dawn, December 14th, 2017