MULTAN: A complainant who submitted details of alleged benami properties of a top official of the Multan Development Authority says he is being threatened not to join the inquiry (if it is conducted) and apprehends his (complaint) file is also missing from official record.

In a letter to MDA Additional Director General on Nov 18, Muhammad Rafique, a resident of Al-Jilaan Road, stated that on the FBR invitation he had submitted an application against MDA Vice Chairman Mumtaz Qureshi who made properties in Multan and Kot Addu in the name of his family members through corruption and by misusing his authority. He requested that his application with relevant record should be protected.

Mr Qureshi however says all the properties have already been declared with the Federal Board of Revenue by him and his family members.

He said a special court of the anti-corruption had cleared him from all the allegations leveled by the complainant. But Rafique says Mr Qureshi had produced a fake complainant and got shelved an inquiry against him.

“None of my property is benami as I declared all my assets during my service, record of which is also available. My opponents moved against me in the ACE in 2018 but both the ACE and court termed all the allegations false,” he said.

He said that it was baseless that any fresh report containing details of his alleged benami properties had been forwarded to the commissioner office by the MDA.

Complainant Rafique submitted the application to former MDA chairman Rana Abdul Jabbar on Sept 21, 2019, wherein he leveled a number of allegations regarding purchase of plots and houses worth millions of rupees in the names of Qureshi’s wife, daughter and sons in different housing societies which were against his known sources of income. He also accused Mr Qureshi of indulging in under-invoicing-- not showing the actual value of the assets.

He said that Mr Qureshi purchased four kanal land in Mauza Neel Kot in 1998 in the name of his wife through unfair means, in 2007 he purchased 26 marla at Chungi No1 in the name of his wife and sons worth declared value of Rs2.7 million despite the fact the actual price of the property was more than Rs10 million; in 2013 Qureshi got a 15 marla house worth Rs 20mn in the name of his daughter, in 2014 he purchased two kanal house in the name of his wife and sons in the Officers Colony worth Rs200 mn, a plot in Pearl City Colony on Askari Road in the name of his daughter-in-law and three plots in Wapda Housing Scheme.

Former chairman Rana Jabbar said the MDA got published advertisements in the newspapers requesting the public to provide details of benami properties. He confirmed receiving application against Mr Qureshi.

“I had marked the application to the DG, which later was sent to ADG MDA Chaurdhry Anwar with direction to forward it to the commissioner office with all the revenue record provided by the complainant,” he said.

He threatened to lodge a case against ADG and other concerned staff if the application or the record is misplaced.

ADG Chaudhry Anwar expressed his ignorance regarding the existence of the application.

An official in the commissioner office said he did receive the details of the benami properties but it was sent back to the MDA with a request to attach a proforma with it.

According to a Dawn report last month, the drive against benami asset holders launched on July 1 received a lacklustre response from the provinces.

The deadline for getting the information from the provinces was Sept 30, which was largely missed by the provinces.

The response from Punjab is even more pathetic. The only DC from Punjab who identified 25 benami properties is the Multan DC.

In the case of Punjab, a new deadline of Oct 31 was given to DCs.

Talking to Dawn on Wednesday, ADCR Agha Zaheer Abbas Sherazi said details of 300 benami properties had been sent to the BBR. He said his office did receive a complaint regarding the MDA but was not sure if it was against Mr Qureshi.

Published in Dawn, November 21st, 2019