LAHORE: An accountability court on Thursday expressed its displeasure with the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for delaying filing of reference against Leader of Opposition in National Assembly Shahbaz Sharif and former principal secretary to prime minister Fawad Hassan Fawad in Ashiana Housing Scheme scam.

Judge Syed Najamul Hassan Bokhari observed that the NAB showed ‘efficiency’ when it needed physical remand of a suspect but remained idle when it came to filing a reference.

The judge also took exception to absence of the bureau’s investigating officer and wing officer despite an order. Later the IO appeared and tendered unconditional apology saying he failed to appear before the court on time due to an urgent meeting.

However, the judge rejected the excuse given by the officer and observed that the NAB officials did not extend any favour to the court with their appearance. “They are duty bound to appear in courts whenever summoned,” the judge added and directed the wing officer to ensure his presence on next hearing.

Meanwhile, the IO assured the court that the reference against Shahbaz Sharif and Fawad Hassan Fawad would be filed within two weeks.

He said the reference against former head of the Lahore Development Authority Ahad Khan Cheema, and six other suspects had already been filed in the same case. The court will resume hearing on Dec 21.

The NAB accused the suspects of causing a loss of Rs660 million to the national exchequer with their corruption in the low-cost housing scheme launched by the PML-N government in the province.

It alleged that Fawad misused his authority being secretary implementation of former chief minister Shahbaz Sharif and violated procurement rules to award contract of the housing scheme to a company of his choice. It said initially Rs1.5 billion worth of contract was given to successful bidder –M/s Chaudhry Latif and Sons. Later, Fawad cancelled the contract and awarded the same to M/s Lahore Casa Developers on an inflated price of Rs4bn. It said the government had to pay Rs6m as fine to the successful bidder.

The bureau accused Shahbaz Sharif of issuing an unlawful order to entrust the housing project to the LDA when his close aide Ahad Khan Cheema was heading the authority as its director general.

Published in Dawn, December 14th, 2018