Early this month, a case was registered against former director of the Interior Ministry’s National Crisis Management Cell (NCMC) retired Brig Javed Iqbal Cheema and a property dealer on the charge of fraud and forgery.

The investigators are, however, of the view that the complainant Mohammad Sharif Sabir, a former deputy secretary of the ministry, nominated the former director in the case for vested interests. Similarly, Brig Cheema also alleged that Mr Sabir had a personal grudge against him as he (Cheema) had sent a reference against him to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) which led to his seven-year sentencing.

The FIR registered with the Margalla police station stated that Mr Sabir, the complainant remained the general secretary of the Interior Ministry Employees Cooperative Housing Society from 1984 to 1999. During his tenure, a contract was awarded to Raja Ali Akbar, property dealer, to purchase land for the society in sector G-16.

Three agreements were signed in this regard on June 5, 1994, February 8, 1996, and October 2, 1996, to provide 3,312 kanals and five marlas to the society. In this regard, 76 cross cheques worth Rs274,851,000 were issued to the contractor. However, later it was revealed that the contractor had not transferred most of the land to the society.

When the society officials approached the contractor on March 10, 1999, and asked about it, he replied that some people from whom he had purchased the pieces of land had cheated him. He said he would arrange the land from a villager, Malik Israr.

But on August 20, 1999, in connivance with Mr Israr the contractor got the attorneys of the purchased land measuring 60 kanals canceled. Later, he also got canceled the attorney of another 65 kanals and two marlas but never returned the amount paid to him for the land. In response, Mr Sabir brought the matter under the knowledge of the authorities concerned in the ministry but the contractor in connivance with Brig Cheema, who was the administrator of the society at that time, implicated him in a false case, according to the FIR. However, Mr Sabir was later acquitted by the Lahore High Court’s Rawalpindi bench, the FIR added.

Besides, the then administrator also issued a letter on March 16, 2006, to the contractor clearing him of the allegations and stating that he had arranged the land for the society, it added. The complainant alleged in the FIR that the contractor and Brig Cheema embezzled millions of rupees of the society.

When contacted, Mr Sabir told Dawn that there was still 198 kanals of land worth Rs400 million to be transferred to the society but the contractor, in connivance with Brig Cheema, embezzled the amount paid by the society for the land.

Mr Sabir said Brig Cheema sent a reference to NAB against him in 2003 and made the contractor an approval. As a result, he added, the NAB court awarded him seven years imprisonment in November 2011. He was arrested and sent to Adiala Jail where he was detained for a year till the LHC acquitted him.

He said Brig Cheema filed an appeal against the verdict with the Supreme Court which was rejected.

“I wrote to NAB on April 10, 2014, about the embezzlement and in response the bureau asked comments from the society,” he said, adding the society approached him to help and during the examination of the papers an embezzlement of more funds was detected.

He added: “I submitted a complaint with the Margalla police on May 17, 2014, but the police took seven months to register the case that too on the direction of the senior superintendent of police.” He alleged that the investigators and colleagues of Brig Cheema in the ministry were trying to get him acquitted of the case.

Brig Cheema, when contacted, said: “Sabir is acting against me due to a grudge as I had sent a reference against him to NAB. He himself is involved in the embezzlement as he remained the general secretary of the society from 1984 to 1999 when I was in the army and posted to the National Defence University.”

He added: “I have no acquaintance with the contractor, and the complainant in connivance with him committed the embezzlement. I would initiate a legal action against Sabir and file a defamation case against him soon,” he added.

When asked why the police delayed the registration of the case, investigating officer Ghulam Habib told Dawn that the police had initially refused to register the case because the complainant was not an affected person. But later the complainant brought a letter from the interior ministry informing the police that he was the officer concerned when the crime was committed, so his complaint should be entertained and action be taken against the accused.

“So far the investigations have found only Akbar guilty of embezzlement. However, it is not clear with whom he committed the crime,” he added.

Published in Dawn January 12th , 2014

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