Railways’ land lease: 3 ex-generals told to clarify land deal

SC summons Lt-Gen (retd) Javed Ashraf Qazi, Lt-Gen (retd) Saeed Azfar and Maj-Gen (retd) Hamid Hassan Butt.

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Thursday served notices on three former army generals, ordering them to file their replies in connection with the allotment of 141 acres of land to a private firm on a 49-year lease.

The orders were passed by a three-member bench of the apex court, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, while hearing a suo motu case initiated on a report published exclusively by The Express Tribune. The news story, captioned, “Political expediency: Report on railway land fraud ‘dropped’” appeared on January 9.

The bench also allowed petitions filed by Dr Mubasshir Hassan and former state minister for railways Ishaq Khan Khakwani to be included in the suo motu case proceedings.

Apart from former federal minister Lt-Gen (retd) Javed Ashraf Qazi, Lt-Gen (retd) Saeed Azfar and Maj-Gen (retd) Hamid Hassan Butt, the court also issued notices to the chairman of the Railway Board, senior member of the Board of Revenue, Punjab, the finance ministry and a company named Husnain Construction which obtained the land for the construction of ‘Royal Palm Golf  and Country Club’. The administration of golf and country club has also been told to appear before the court on the next hearing.

The counsel for the petitioners, Allah Nawaz Khan, former Chief Justice of LHC, apprised the court that the ministry of railways had given land in Lahore on very low prices in 2001, adding that this matter was raised before the previous Public Accounts Committee, and the Auditor General of Pakistan had prepared a separate report on this issue.

Recently, a special committee on railways prepared another report and sent to the National Assembly on August 26 last year, which could not be tabled for debate.

At this point, Chief Justice Chaudhry summoned Rauf Klasra and additional secretary of the National Assembly Munawer Abbas who informed the bench that the report was not tabled in the house even after the passage of four months.

When the chief justice questioned Rauf Klasra about the authenticity of his report, Klasra said he could prove it any time with documentary evidence.

The lawyer informed the bench that this scandal caused a loss of Rs25 billion to the national exchequer, adding that facts were concealed in the advertisement for the land’s lease.

According to the counsel, 103 acres of land were given on lease for a period of 33 years, but later 141 acres were leased out for 49 years.

While issuing notices to all respondents, the court directed the authorities concerned to inform it if any FIR was registered.

The court also directed the secretary, establishment, to inform the court about the details of all functionaries who were appointed during the period when this deal was being materialised.

The court also directed the chairman, railways, to submit the report of Auditor-General of Pakistan on this scam and inform the court of the reasons why suggestions of the Public Accounts Committee could not be implemented.

Later, the case was adjourned till January 31.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 14^th, 2011.