LAHORE: An accountability court on Tuesday allowed the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to close an investigation into the illegal land allotment charges against the Chaudhrys of Gujrat due to lack of evidence.

Punjab Assembly Spea­ker Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi and Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid head Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain faced an inquiry, instituted in 2000, for allegedly influencing the Lahore Development Autho­rity (LDA) to exempt 21-kanal land and 28 plots, measuring 10 marlas each, to benefit their alleged front men.

However, the anti-graft watchdog stated that it could not find any evidence against them. Therefore, the bureau through its chairman filed an application under Section 9-C of the National Accoun­tability Ordinance, requesting the court to close the inquiry against them.

NAB stated that the investigators found the allegations against the Chaudhrys baseless after thorough examination.

During Tuesday’s hearing, the investigating officer also submitted a complete record of the case before the court and stated that the NAB chairman had already given his consent to close the inquiry.

Judge Syed Najamul Hassan Bokhari accepted the NAB application and granted approval to close the inquiry.

At a previous hearing, Advocate Amjad Pervez representing the Chaudhry brothers told the court that their employee, Aslam Beg, had purchased the plots in the LDA scheme and the investigation proved that his clients had no role in that purchase.

He said two other suspects Mohammad Nawaz and Mohammad Iqbal, who were LDA employees, confessed during the investigation that they had prepared fake documents of the plots at the behest of Aslam Beg.

The counsel had also told the court that personal appearance of his clients was not necessary for the proceedings related to the closure of the inquiry.

Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi remained Punjab CM during the Musharraf rule from 2002 to 2007 and deputy prime minister during the PPP rule, while Mr Shujaat got the prime minister’s slot for a brief period during the military rule.

Published in Dawn, May 1st, 2019