LAHORE, Oct 24: An accountability court amended on Wednesday the charges in the Bucha Garden case and fixed Nov 1 for recording of prosecution evidence.

The prosecution had applied for addition of two more people as accused in the case. They are Services Cooperative Credit Corporation Ltd (SCCCL) former vice-chairman Imtiaz Ilahi Jauhari and Malik Ijaz Awan who is the brother of ex-MPA and SCCCL’s former chairman Zulfiqar Awan. The court amended the charges to add the names of the accused.

The case is about fraudulent allotment of 994 kanals of land owned by the now defunct SCCCL. The land situated in Maraka village, Lahore, initially belonged to Bucha family from whom it was transferred to the cooperative. The land was under the control of the Punjab Cooperatives Board for Liquidation when the accused allegedly got it registered in their names.

The other accused who have been charge sheeted include magistrate Chaudhry Muhammad Arshad, former inspector Abid Boxer, Muhammad Ramazan, Muhammad Arshad, Parvez Akhtar, Muhammad Siddiq, Nasreen Akhtar, Naseem Akhtar, Muhammad Saleem, Taj Din, Ghulam Rasool, Muhammad Rafiq and Muhammad Arshad Beg.

Ten accused in the case have already been declared proclaimed offenders.

In another case, an accountability court summoned 20 defence witnesses cited by Pakistan Medical Cooperative Housing Society’s former chairman Dr Azhar Ata who is accused of misappropriating the society’s funds.

The next date of hearing is Oct 30.

The court has already recorded the statements of 14 defence witnesses while the accused gave the names of 10 witnesses.

An accountability court sent Chaudhry Sarwar Hayat into the physical custody of NAB till Nov 6.

Chaudhry Sarwar is a son of former MNA Chaudhry Muhammad Hayat and is allegedly a loan defaulter and has Rs47.67 million outstanding against him. The money was taken from NICFC.