LAHORE: An accountability court extended on Wednesday the judicial remand of former director general of the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) Ahad Cheema in the LDA City scam.

The court extended the judicial remand of Mr Cheema for another eight days with a direction to produce him again on expiry of remand term, January 10.

Accountability Court Judge Syed Najamul Hassan conducted the case proceedings, whereas, the accused was also produced in the court.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) is probing into the complaints of irregularities and wrongdoings in the LDA City Project. Mr Cheema and LDA City are accused of selling the land (plots) more than they acquired.

Also, the accountability court extended judicial remand of former vice-chancellor of the Sargodha University Prof Muhammad Akram and four others in a case related to establishment of two illegal sub-campuses of the varsity, till Jan 17.

Judge Syed Najamul Hassan passed the orders after NAB officials pleaded with the court for extension in judicial remand.

Besides Prof Akram, other suspects - Sargodha University former registrar retired Brig Rao Jamil, Lahore sub-campus former admin director Akram, Mandi Bahauddin sub-campus chief executive officer (CEO) Waris and his partner Naeem - were also produced before the court.

Lahore sub-campus’ former CEO Mian Javed Ahmad was also arrested in connection with the scam but he died in jail due to heart attack last week.

The bureau arrested the accused for establishing illegal sub-campuses under public private partnership policy and wasted time and money of thousands of students.

The arrests were made by NAB as per directions by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar in suo motu case on a petition of the students of private campuses of the university at the Supreme Court’s Lahore Registry.

Published in Dawn, January 3rd, 2019