LAHORE: An accountability court reserved its verdict on Wednesday on the acquittal applications by former prime minister Shehbaz Sharif, former Lahore Development Authority (LDA) director general Ahad Khan Cheema and other people in the Ashiana-i-Iqbal Housing Scheme reference.

Judge Ali Zulqarnain Awan made this decision after hearing the final arguments from the applicants’ counsel and the prosecutors from the National Accountability Bureau (NAB). The judge is expected to announce the verdict on Nov 7.

The acquittal applications put forward the argument that all the witnesses who had initially cooperated with the prosecution had since retracted their statements. This change in testimony, they claimed, made it impossible to secure a conviction in the case. As a result, the applicants requested the court to grant their applications for acquittal.

In a report submitted in May, the NAB informed the court that it had found no evidence of financial corruption or misuse of authority involving Mr Sharif. The report stated that the allegations of misuse of authority and corruption against the former prime minister did not meet the requirements set out in the National Accountability Ordinance of 1999.

In the Ashiana reference, the accountability court had previously acquitted Kamran Kiyani, the brother of former army chief Ashfaque Parvez Kiyani, and Nadeem Zia of Paragon City due to a “lack of evidence” on Oct 11.

The NAB had filed the reference in 2018, alleging that Mr Sharif and other accused people had caused significant financial loss to the national treasury by awarding the housing scheme contract to a company without a competitive bidding process.

Mr Sharif was arrested on Oct 5, 2018, in connection with the housing scheme reference when he appeared before the NAB regarding the Punjab Saaf Pani Company case.

Mr Cheema, on the other hand, was arrested on Feb 21, 2018, for abusing his authority with criminal intent and awarding Rs14 billion worth of contracts for the Ashiana scheme.

The NAB alleged that Mr Cheema received illegal benefits in the form of 32 kanals from the owners of Paragon City Developers as a reward for awarding the housing scheme contract to their proxy firm, Bismillah Engineering. Cheema was released on bail after spending almost two years in detention.

Published in Dawn, November 2nd, 2023