GUJRAT: The Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) has widened the scope of investigation against former Gujrat additional deputy commissioner revenue Dr Rani Hafsa Kanwal as another charge of assets beyond declared income has also been included in the already registered case of illegal transfer of state land to some private persons.

A four-member team comprising Hafizabad circle deputy director Sajjad Gondal, Gujranwala circle deputy director Khizar Hayat Bhatti, lady officer Hubaiba Nazeer, assistant director Gujranwala, and circle officer Sialkot Rae Safdar Hussain is investigating the case of illegal transfer of land.

A senior official of the ACE told Dawn that it had formally added the charge of assets beyond declared income against former ADCR Ms Kanwal in addition to the sections 420, 468 and 471 of Pakistan Penal Code and 5/2/47 of Anti-Corruption Act and now the investigation would also be done on the new charges.

The former ADCR through the decision of her revenue court in April 2019, ordered the transfer of a piece of land measuring some 32 kanal owned by the Punjab Cooperatives Board for Liquidation (PCBL) to private persons Mubarik Beig and Azhar Iqbal after which the mutation was made into the official land record whereas the PCBL was never heard in this case.

An official related to investigation said that the land was purchased by the National Industrial Cooperative Finance Corporation (NICFC) which had become dysfunctional and all the assets of that Corporation had been the property of PCBL however the revenue court had issued the notices to the defunct NICFC instead of PCBL thus deciding the case on ex-parte basis without listening to the PCBL.

He said that the ACE had also unearthed a palatial house in Defence Housing Authority (DHA) Lahore worth around Rs 60 million which was reportedly owned by the ex-ADCR and efforts were under way to dig out more such assets of the suspect and her other family members that was why the charge of assets beyond declared income had been added to the case. He said that as per the so far evaluation of the market price of the said piece of land was assessed beyond Rs1 billion.

Meanwhile, the investigation team has also inspected the official record of the land revenue department in which the ownership of the said piece of land had been changed through revenue court’s orders. The team also obtained the attested copies of all the documents in the file of the said matter.

The ACE has been conducting raids to arrest the remaining two suspects in the case who are the beneficiaries in the illegal transfer of the state land.

Ms Kanwal has been detained in Gujranwala district jail after she was sent on judicial remand of 14 days on Friday last by the court of an area magistrate in Gujrat as she was arrested by an ACE team from Chamba House, Lahore on Aug 4 last after the registration of a case against her on July 25.

She has also applied for the post arrest bail that’s first hearing was held on Aug 10 last in the court of additional sessions judge Gujranwala Asif Basheer who heard the case as a duty judge for special court of anti corruption due to the leave of the judge of the special court. The judge fixed Aug 13 as the next date of hearing on the request of PCBL to become a party in the case and now the PCBL lawyer will also appear in the case on Thursday (today).

Published in Dawn, August 13th, 2020