TAXILA, Aug 15: Seven members of former tehsil municipal administration Hassanabdal, including its former nazim, involved in a land scam, on Monday succeeded in getting pre-arrest bail from a local court.

They were booked by Punjab anti-corruption department on the charges of embezzlement and anomalies in procurement of over 106 kanals of land for construction of a cricket stadium in 2006.

A team of the anti-corruption establishment took the record of the land procurement in custody after interviewing officials of the tehsil municipal administration and revenue department.

The team found that the seven-member committee led by former tehsil nazim Shafqat Khan and comprising former naib tehsil nazim Sadda Hussain Shah, former nazim UC 27 Kafiyat Awan, former naib nazim UC 27 Malik Mohammad Khursheed; Zubair Iqbal, councilors Fida Hussain Shah and Shamsa Kanwal allegedly procured the land at an exorbitant rate.

As per FIR, the market value of the land situated at far away from the city in barren and hilly area near a rainwater channel on Bhafaud road was Rs30,000 per kanal but the committee procured it at the rate of Rs90,000 per kanal.

The anti-corruption department had issued notices to the seven members to appear before the investigation team on August 12, but instead of appearing before the committee they approached the court and succeeded in getting pre-arrest bail.

Meanwhile, talking to newsmen former members of the LG denied the allegations.

They termed the move of anti-corruption department political victimization by the Punjab government as all the members belonged to PML-Q.

They said during audit and special audit by the provincial government in 2010, no discrepancy was found and now on the baseless allegations charges have been framed against them.

They said that they had purchased the land at low rates compared to the rates officially notified by district revenue authorities in 2006.