LAHORE: The Supreme Court on Thursday reconstituted a joint investigation team (JIT) to probe the role of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif in illegal allotment of land around the Baba Farid shrine in Pakpattan in 1986 after National Counter Terrorism Authority (Nacta) director general Mehar Khalid Dad Lak refused to head the team.

Mr Lak and other members of the JIT were present in the court when a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar took up the case.

The chief justice said he had already heard the concerns of Mr Lak in chamber and the court would not force him to head the JIT. However, the chief justice observed that the court had showed its trust in Mr Lak by assigning him the task.

“Such people are so fortunate,” he added.

Nawaz Sharif has been accused of being involved in illegal allotment of land around Baba Farid shrine

When asked to propose his replacement, Mr Lak suggested the name of the director general of the Anti-Corruption Establishment, Punjab, Hussain Asghar. The chief justice remarked that Mr Asghar was also a man of integrity and regretted that he had forgotten his name while constituting the JIT earlier.

Finally, the bench appointed the ACE chief as head of the JIT and directed all its members to finalise within 10 days the terms of reference (ToR). The bench would resume hearing on Jan 8.

Other members of the JIT are from the Inter-Services Intelligence and Intelligence Bureau. The team is empowered to co-opt more members for assistance.

It is alleged that being chief minister of Punjab, Nawaz Sharif had in 1986 ordered withdrawing a notification of Dec 17, 1969 and allotted a huge tract of land of Auqaf around the shrine to Dewan Ghulam Qutabuddin in violation of a high court order.

In his reply, Mr Sharif had requested that the notice issued to him be discharged in the interest of justice. He said the documents submitted by the government in the SC revealed that the Auqaf department had on Jan 17, 1961 taken over administration, management and maintenance of the shrine of Baba Farid Ganj Shakar.

Subsequently, with the approval of the then governor of Punjab, the Auqaf department issued another notification on Dec 17, 1969 for taking over additional land that later resulted into litigation between the parties, the reply added.

It said Dewan Ghulam Qutabuddin, the Sajada-Nashin of the shrine, filed an application in June 1986 to the then prime minister through the governor of Punjab, pleading that the disputed property taken over by the Auqaf department was his ancestral property and the same should be returned to him.

Published in Dawn, December 28th, 2018