LAHORE: An accountability court on Saturday remanded a key suspect in the Rs16 billion DHA City land scam in seven-day custody of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

The NAB authorities produced former project director of DHA City, retired Brig Khalid Nazir Butt, before the court under strict security arrangements.

The investigation officer told the court the suspect had signed a vague contract with Globaco, the company of prime suspect Hammad Arshad, which was tasked with acquiring land for DHA City, Lahore.

The officer said Butt allowed Globaco to launch the project without acquisition of 10,000 kanal and getting the master plan approved from the executive board of DHA. He sought physical custody of the suspect for further investigation.

Counsel for the suspect opposed the bureau’s request for remand and said there was no fraud but a little delay in execution of the agreement.

However, the court granted seven-day physical remand of Brig Butt to the NAB with direction to produce him again on Feb 20. The scam’s prime suspect Hammad Arshad was already in the bureau’s custody.

Published in Dawn, February 14th, 2016