LAHORE, Dec 17: A Rs500 million scam of ‘illegal’ sale of 80 residential plots on the state land in Johar Town by the land mafia in connivance with the Lahore Development Authority officials has come to the fore.

The mafia didn’t even spare the plots allotted by Nawaz Sharif to widows during his second stint as prime minister in the late 1990s. Thirty-six plots of one kanal each are in M A Johar Town scheme while 44 plots (three to 10 marlas) were allotted under the widow quota (also in Johar Town). The National Accountability Bureau is investigating the scam.

Sources in the bureau told Dawn on Wednesday that a group of highly influential people – Muhammad Amjad, Jaffar Husain and Javaid, who deal in real estate business, prepared ‘bogus’ allotment files in connivance with ‘senior officials’ of LDA back in 1995 and got exempted 26 plots (one kanal each) in the LDA scheme and sold them at market price.

Sources said the mafia committed the fraud in a way that on verification with the LDA the record was found ‘correct’ because the officials registered the ‘fake’ entries.

Similarly, according to the NAB investigation so far three employees of the LDA have been found involved in illegal occupation of 44 plots of widow quota. They did so through fabrication of fake power of attorneys. They first raised houses on the plots and then sold 32 while renting out the remaining. The investigation revealed that the accused used bogus documents to get electricity, Sui gas and water connections.

The NAB also found 10 more plots (one kanal each in Johar Town) owned by LDA employee Babar Ali Kharal who has been in jail for the last one and-a-half years on the charges of occupying a number of plots through fake documents.

Kharal started his career in the LDA as a low-cadre employee some 15 years ago and during the period he became millionaire after indulging in illegal practice.

Sources said they had been facing problems in the investigation as the LDA officials concerned were not extending cooperation to them. They said after collecting incriminating evidence against the accused a reference would be filed with an accountability court against them.

An official described the LDA as ‘hot bed of corruption’ and urged Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif to intervene and take necessary measures to purge it of the evil.

It is learnt that the people who had bought the plots and houses from these fraudsters are perturbed over the development. “Though they have no fault of theirs in the whole episode, they will have to vacate the state land under the law,” an official said, adding that the LDA should compensate them.