LAHORE, June 25: The Federal Investigation Agency has unearthed another dubious sale of land in Defence (Lahore) worth Rs590 million by former Evacuee Trust Property Board chairman Asif Hashmi, asking him to appear before the Supreme Court next week otherwise the process of his passport cancellation can be initiated.

The FIA is investigating the ETPB’s 843-kanal deal with the Defence Housing Authority (DHA) during the tenure of Hashmi that allegedly caused a loss of over Rs1 billion to the exchequer.

FIA Director (Lahore) Kudratullah Murawat, Additional Director Javed Shah, assistant directors Jamil Ahmed Khan and Khalid Anees are investigating the case on the complaint of Gulab Singh.

An investigator told Dawn on Wednesday that apart from this (843-kanal) deal, the agency had traced the “front men” of Hashmi and some DHA people who were given Rs590 million in the sale of several kanals. “Tanvir Husain, Kamran Khan, Amir Abbas and others had received Rs590 million in the sale of ETPB’s land to the DHA. They were neither the employees of the ETPB nor leaseholders,” the investigator said.

He further said Hashmi had sold his house in Defence before leaving for Dubai. At present, he is in London.

The FIA official said the agency through foreign office had asked Mr Hashmi to ensure his appearance in the court’s next hearing in the case otherwise the process of cancellation of his passport might be initiated (on the court’s order).

In the main case, Mr Hashmi had allegedly revised the deal to sell the board’s 843 kanals located in Mauza Mota Singh Wala and Mauza Lidhar (where phase-VI of the DHA has been developed) to the DHA that caused over Rs1 billion loss to the exchequer.

Before Mr Hashmi assumed the charge over four years ago, the ETPB had finalised the deal to sell 843 kanals to the housing authority against receiving 33 per cent of the developed (exemption) plots there.

According to the FIA, Mr Hashmi revised the deal, agreeing to receive 25 per cent of the undeveloped plots. The revision of the deal was not in the best interest of the ETPB, causing a huge financial loss to it.