LAHORE, April 2: The Jamaat-i-Islami on Wednesday again released details of alleged malpractices committed by Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi as local bodies minister from 1988 to 1990.
Jamaat’s Ehtesab Cell in-charge Gen M H Ansari (retired), at a press conference here, expressed shock at the National Accountability Bureau spokesman’s statement on Tuesday in which he said there was no case pending against Chaudhry Shujaat or Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi.
Mr Ansari remained attached with the NAB’s investigation cell in Lahore for a couple of years, and his contract expired only some weeks ago.
He said he was at a loss to understand why the NAB authorities ignored the reference filed by him against the incumbent Punjab chief minister on Jan 26, 2000, on charges of fake allotment of six valuable plots at New Garden Town, Lahore, in 1989.
Details of the plots and their ‘fake’ allottees were also released to the press on this occasion.
The cell in-charge also said the so-called allottees, when contacted, denied that they had got the plots. They feared that some miscreants had misused their identity papers to achieve their own interests, he added.
The malpractice had caused the exchequer Rs50 million loss, he alleged, adding the loss would climb up to Rs200 million if mark-up was also accumulated into the principle amount. He added the NAB authorities should have approached him before disposing of the reference. “If the reference was wrong, then I should have been penalized for it,” he said, pledging to move a court of law if his plea was not entertained by the NAB authorities.
Mr Ansari said he had filed 112 references/complaints with the NAB, whose authorities in Islamabad had processed and sent 10 of the cases, including the one against Mr Pervaiz Elahi, to the officials of the institution in Lahore with the direction to process them further.
The NAB also directed the anti-corruption department on Feb 10, 2000, to hold inquiries into the cases and submit a report positively by March 26, 2000.
He claimed that the case was then sent to the deputy prosecutor-general for further scrutiny on Dec 12, 2001. After it he did not know what happened with the case until a NAB spokesman denied on Tuesday (April 1) that any case was pending with it against the Chaudhrys of Gujrat. Asked why he did not get processed the case when he, too, was attached with the NAB, he said he was not in a position to do so.