MUZAFFARABAD: In an early morning swoop on Thursday, an investigation team of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Ehtesab Bureau arrested a retired BS-20 officer for his alleged involvement in corruption and misuse of powers in connection with the purchase of land for rehabilitation of Kashmiris settled in two constituencies of AJK assembly in the territorial limits of the Rawalpindi district.

Nabeel Ahmed Qureshi, the former commissioner rehabilitation, was apprehended from his residence in the lakeside city of Mirpur and produced before an Ehtesab court judge who remanded him to the bureau’s custody till Sept 17 for further investigations, said a press release issued by the accountability body.

Mr Qureshi and his successor Khawaja Abdul Qayyum are being blamed for dereliction of duty and misuse of authority in the spending of Rs50.41 million in 2013 and 2015 drawn for establishment of a housing colony for the post-1947 refugees from Kashmir Valley.

According to the press release, the bureau took up the issue after Mohammad Ishtiaq Awan lodged a complaint with it.

Nabeel Ahmed Qureshi is accused of misuse of authority in spending Rs50.41m for establishment of a housing colony for Kashmiri refugees

An official of the accountability body told Dawn on condition of anonymity that in June 2013 the then PPP government had constituted two committees through a single notification for supervision/monitoring and purchase of land for the housing colony, respectively.

The first committee for monitoring/supervision comprised three ruling party legislators who were themselves settled in Rawalpindi. They were then minister for tourism and civil defence Abdus Salam Butt (chairman), law minister Syed Azhar Hussain Gillani and deputy speaker Shaheen Kausar Dar (members).

Interestingly, the then minister for rehabilitation Abdul Majid Khan was not part of that committee.

The second committee for purchase comprised commissioner rehabilitation (chairman), collector settlement, officer in-charge rehabilitation and one each nominee of the MLAs of the two constituencies concerned (members).

The second committee was asked to work under the directions of the first committee.

According to the complainant, the committees selected completely unsuitable and rugged 102 kanals in Mothu Khingar village and 56 kanals in Sanghori Rajgan village of Gujar Khan through Asim Javed Butt, nephew and son-in-law of minister Butt who was serving at that time as an ad hoc assistant director in the civil defence department.

Record available with Dawn showed that Mr Butt transferred the land to the AJK rehabilitation department through two deeds in December 2013 and three deeds in June 2015, a few days after obtaining powers of attorney from the actual owners.

The complainant alleged that the actual price of the land at that time was Rs40,000 per kanal but it was sold to the AJK rehabilitation department at Rs300,000 per kanal.

Taking action on the complaint, the bureau seized record from the office of commissioner rehabilitation, and preliminary investigations showed that most of the land was sloppy and located along the water channels and fell in the category of shamilat (common land of a revenue estate).

Neither the two pieces of land were connected to each other nor was there any approach to them from the main road. Besides, the area was devoid of electricity and gas facilities, said the investigating officer.

The official said being commissioner rehabilitation it was primarily the responsibility of Mr Qureshi to ensure that the land being purchased was suitable for a housing scheme but he failed to do so and submitted himself to the legislators’ committee, leading to the waste of Rs50.41 million from the taxpayers’ money.

The official claimed that other accused in the “mega corruption case” would also be nabbed soon.

Published in Dawn, September 7th, 2018