LAHORE: An accountability court on Tuesday extended judicial remand of Lahore Development Authority’s former director general Ahad Khan Cheema and another person involved in Ashiana-i-Iqbal Housing Scheme scam.

The jail officials presented Cheema and Shahid Shafiq of Bismillah Engineering before the court.

A prosecutor of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) told the court that the Punjab Land Development Company signed contract in 2015 but failed to complete the low-cost housing project despite a lapse of three years.

He said Cheema being head of the LDA awarded Rs14 billion contract to a joint venture led by Lahore Casa Company in violation of rules. He said according to laws a contract above Rs150 million could not be given to any company without bidding.

The court extended the judicial remand of Cheema and Shafiq till July 4 and also directed the prosecutor to come up with further arguments.

Cheema was arrested by the NAB on Feb 21, 2018 on charges of misusing his authority with criminal intent and awarding Rs14bn contracts of the Ashiana-i-Iqbal housing scheme. It said procurement rules had been violated by the former chief of LDA.

The NAB alleged that Bismillah Engineering of Shahid Shafiq was a proxy firm working on behalf of Paragon City Developers (Pvt) Ltd. It further said Cheema received illegal gratification in the form of 32 kanal land from the owners of Paragon Developers.

Published in Dawn, June 20th, 2018