Land mutation: Bahria Town demands fresh probe into land affair

Management ‘pushing’ to withdraw possible judicial action.

LAHORE: The Bahria Town management is allegedly using various channels to pressurise the Anti Corruption Establishment (ACE) to withdraw the option of possible judicial action against its chairman, his son, the general manager and other employees of Bahria Town mentioned in FIR 29/2009, The Express Tribune has learnt.

Director General (DG) ACE Kazim Ali Malik said judicial action must be taken against the accused. ACE Rawalpindi registered an FIR dated November 4, 2009, against five persons on charges of corruption and fraudulent transfer of land on fake verification in the name of the said accused.

On December 12, 2010, Justice Ijaz Ahmed of Lahore High Court Rawalpindi bench, in a bail plea of one of the accused, directed ACE to conduct a comprehensive investigation against the beneficiaries of the land transfer.

During investigations, it was discovered that out of a total 18 fraudulent mutations, one was made in the name of chairman Bahria Town Malik Riaz Ahmed, two in the name of his son Ahmed Ali Riaz Malik, 11 in the name of an employee of Bahria Town Muhammad Iqbal, two in the name of Sheikh Sajidur Rehman and one each in the names of Nasirul Haq and Daldar Hussain.

Meanwhile general manager Bahria Town Lt Col (retd) Akhtar Saeed, naib tehsildar Adnan Bashir Kiayani, Muhammad Hussain Gardawar and Nazir Hussain Gardawar helped the accused to get mutations on fake entries, bogus verification and ownership of the land while counterfeiting official records.

Saeed submitted a petition with the DG, ACE for re-investigation of case with the stance that Bahria chairman and employees were falsely implicated in the case, requesting the ACE to drop the allegations levelled against Bahria Town.

An official of ACE said Bahria Town was using various tactics to distort the facts of the case and establish their innocence. Bahria’s administration was making efforts to put all the burden of forgery on revenue officials, he said, adding that the land was fraudulently transferred and mutated with the connivance of Bahria Town management.

Malik said the investigation was conducted purely on merit, adding that raids would be conducted to arrest the accused as soon as the police force would be available. The ACE would submit a petition in a court of law and the court would decide the fate of the case, he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 20^th,  2011.