LAHORE: An accountability court on Tuesday declared Kamran Kayani (brother of former army chief retired Gen Ashfaque Parvez Kayani), Paragon City Housing Society’s director Nadeem Zia and another accused proclaimed offenders in the Ashiyana-i-Iqbal housing scheme scam.

Accountability court judge Najamul Hassan, on the plea of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), had on Jan 10 started the process of declaring the three suspects ‘absconders’, with the court directing NAB to submit its report by Feb 11, after publishing warrants in newspapers against the three suspects.

NAB special prosecutor Waris Ali Janjua asked the court to start proceedings under Sections 87 & 88 of the Code of Criminal Proce­dure, to declare Mr Kayani and the others ‘absconders’. The NAB report stated that warrants for the arrest of the three suspects had not been served upon them since their residences were found loc­ked.

The court, on the request of NAB and after the submission of the report, declared the three suspects ‘proclaimed offenders’.

Shahbaz summoned in Ashiyana housing scheme scam on 18th

The court has summoned the leader of the opposition in the National Assembly, Shahbaz Sharif, on February 18 in the case.

Three suspects — former principal secretary to the prime minister Fawad Hassan Fawad, former director general of the Lahore Development Authority Ahad Khan Cheema, and Shahid Shafique of Bismillah Engineering — were produced by NAB during the hearing.

In its reference, NAB accused Mr Sharif of misusing his powers as chief minister of Punjab.

It said that the Punjab Land Development Company (PLDC), following due approval of its board of directors), awarded the contract for infrastructure development of the Ashiyana-i-Iqbal housing scheme to successful bidder M/S Ch. A. Latif & Sons in 2013.

It said a company, namely CONPRO Services (Pvt) Limited, which filed the complaint, had bribed the then Punjab secretary implementation, Mr Fawad. The complainant company is believed to be owned by Kamran Kayani, NAB alleged.

The reference said that the former chief minister — without lawful authority — ordered the PLDC to entrust the housing project to the LDA when Ahad Cheema was heading the authority as its director general. It said the LDA undertook the project under public-private partnership to give unlawful benefit to M/S Bismillah Engineering Services, which was a proxy firm of M/S Paragon City (Pvt) Ltd.

NAB also accused Mr Cheema of misusing his authority with criminal intent and handing out Rs14 billion contracts of the low-cost housing scheme.

Published in Dawn, February 13th, 2019