LAHORE: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has detected 225 kanal land in Defence, handed over to the Defence Housing Authority (DHA) “illegally” by the former officials of the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB).

Official sources said three former ETBP officials -- administrator Asif Raza, deputy administrator Saeed Anwar and Niab Tehsildar Muhammad Saddique – were involved in fraudulent transfer of 116-kanal land in Mauza Mauta Singhwala and 109-kanal land in Mauza Lidhar (Defence) to the DHA back in 2009.

“A senior member of the Board of Revenue has carried out demarcation and got retrieved 116-kanal in Mauta Singhwala, while the DHA moved the court for 109-kanal in Lidhar village, claiming it acquired the land legally,” a source said.

All the three suspects have already been on judicial remand in connection with the 843-kanal ETPB-DHA deal. The FIA has also nominated them for 225-kanal illegal transfer of land to the DHA.

DHA spokesman was not available for comment.

FIA’s Lahore Director Dr Usman Anwar and Assistant Director Jamil Ahmad Mayo are investigating the matter.

Earlier, the DHA had agreed to revise the deal under which it had acquired ETPB's 843 kanals located in Mauza Mota Singhwala and Mauza Lidhar (where phase-VI of the DHA has been developed) from the board.

The DHA will now hand over the board 33 per cent of developed plots and also not receive development charges from it, thus compensating for the latter's loss.

On the Supreme Court’s directions, the FIA about three months ago had launched an investigation into the shoddy land deal between the board and the authority. In the previous deal which the apex court struck down, the board had allegedly agreed to receive 25pc of the undeveloped plots instead of 33pc, causing an estimated loss of Rs1 billion to the exchequer.

Subsequently, the FIA registered a case against former ETPB chairman Asif Hashmi, former federal secretary Abdul Ghaffar Soomro, Joint Secretary Zahir Shah and five others under sections 409 (criminal breach of trust), 109 (abetment), 420 (fraud and cheating), 468 and 471 (wrong presentation of facts) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

The FIA may determine the “criminal liabilities” of the accused afresh after the reversal of the ETPB-DHA deal.