LAHORE: An accountability court on Monday extended physical remand of former director general of Lahore Development Authority (LDA), Ahad Cheema, and Bismillah Engineering’s proprietor Shahid Shafiq Faridi for 15 days in Ashiyana-i-Iqbal housing scheme case.

An official of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) produced both suspects before the court amid tight security.

The bureau’s investigating officer told the court that investigation of the case was still under way, as result of the forensic examination of two mobile phones and a laptop recovered from Mr Cheema had not been received from the Punjab Forensic Science Agency.

He stated that Cheema awarded a contract to Bismillah Engineering in exchange for 32 kanal of land. An eight-kanal piece of land each was transferred to Mr Cheema, his sister Saeeda Manzoor, brother Ahmed Saeed Cheema and cousin Asad Cheema. He said summons were issued to the other three, but they did not show up.

The officer requested the court to extend physical remand of the suspects for another 15 days for completion of investigation. The court allowed the request and extended the remand till March 20.

The NAB had arrested Mr Cheema from his Gulberg office after he failed to comply with summons issued by the bureau requiring him to appear before an officer probing into the allegations.

Meanwhile, the NAB launched another inquiry against Mr Cheema regarding corruption in Punjab government’s laptop scheme for students.

A statement of the bureau said Mr Cheema during his stint as higher education secretary misappropriated public money meant for the laptop scheme. It said the department purchased laptops worth Rs20,000 for Rs38,000 and Bank of Punjab paid Rs1.65 billion for the entire scheme.

Published in Dawn, March 6th, 2018