LAHORE: Lahore High Court (LHC) Chief Justice Muhammad Qasim Khan on Thursday disposed of a contempt petition against the delay in construction of Narowal Expressway after the provincial government said the budget had been allocated for the project.

A report, filed by the government’s lawyer, stated the work on the project would start after formal approval of the allocation by the Punjab Assembly.

The chief justice expressed satisfaction with the report, however, observing that the court could be moved again for contempt if the government failed to fulfill its commitment.

In this case, the CJ had previously summoned the principal secretary to Chief Minister Usman Buzdar after the government officials failed to satisfy the court with their replies. He had also summoned the record of the development schemes launched in Mianwali, DG Khan, Rajanpur and Jampur, the constituencies of Prime Minister Imran Khan and CM Buzdar.

The Shakargargh Bar Association and others had filed the contempt petition seeking action against the government authorities for delaying the expressway project despite a court’s order.

bail extended: The Lahore High Court on Thursday extended pre-arrest bail of Eden Housing Scheme’s owner Dr Muhammad Amjad, his wife and a daughter till June 30 in a housing scam being investigated by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

Extending the interim bails, a two-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Muhammad Qasim Khan directed the counsel of the suspects to present copies of the Supreme Court’s decisions regarding the housing scam.

Previously, the bench had suspended, in a one-time relief, the red warrants issued against Dr Amjad and his family members and also suspended the effect of being placed on the Exit Control List (ECL) to enble them to return to Pakistan from Canada. Dr Amjad is father in-law of the daughter of former chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.

An accountability court had issued non-bailable arrest warrants of Dr Amjad, his sons Murtaza, who is son-in-law of former chief justice Chaudhry, and Mustafa, wife Anjum in the housing scheme case.

The court had also ordered the NAB to confiscate the properties owned by the absconding suspects.

According to the NAB there are over 11,000 affectees of the housing scam unearthed in 2013.

The suspects had collected Rs18.9 billion from the public through fraud and fled the country.

In September 2018, the Federal Investigation Agency had arrested Murtaza in Dubai. However, he was set at liberty owing to unavailability of sufficient evidence against him. The properties owned by Eden were worth Rs22 billion.

Published in Dawn, June 25th, 2021