Secret probe implicates MNA in Rs6 billion scam

Parlia­mentar­ian from PML-N made a fortun­e throug­h fraudu­lent land deals with the help of senior offici­als.

ISLAMABAD: A parliamentarian from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) made a fortune through fraudulent land deals with the help of senior officials of the National Police Foundation (NPF), Islamabad, documents with The Express Tribune showed.

A confidential inquiry report, which was submitted before Federal Interior Secretary Qamar Zaman Chaudhry earlier this month, said that a member of the National Assembly, Anjum Aqeel Khan, is involved in a six-billion-rupee land scam in which he was aided by four former NPF officials, including former managing director Iftikhar Ahmed Khan. Others named in the report are former housing additional directors Abdul Hannan, Khuda Baksh and Laeeq Ahmed Khan.

Before Aqeel won a National Assembly seat in 2008 on a PML-N ticket, he acted as a ‘broker’ for the NPF through his M/S Land Linkers. His job was to find land for the foundation’s residential colony.

The report alleges that Aqeel had hundreds of NPF housing colony’s plots allotted to his nominees without any formal agreement. The NPF allotted these plots in accordance with the Capital Development Authority’s (CDA) 54:46 formula, which governs the affiliation of private land with government housing schemes.

According to the formula, a private landowner has to surrender and provide 46 per cent of his land for roads and streets. Aqeel was allotted 162 kanals of developed land and, as per this ratio, he has to provide 300 kanals. To date, he has provided only 71 kanals and he is yet to provide 229 kanals on account of affiliation of land and an additional 100 kanals on account of double purchase, the report says.

Now, however, Aqeel is accused of fraud as he has allegedly not transferred 329 kanals of land to the NPF. He is also facing charges of selling 39 kanals of land to the NPF a number of times.

Newly-appointed NPF MD Zafar Ahmed Qureshi, who also holds the dual charge of the chief of NPF, said: “I will look into the … matter and those found guilty will not be spared,” he said.

MNA Aqeel Anjum Khan, later, acknowledged that he had arranged the land on behalf of the NPF but denied causing any loss to the NPF or being part of any such scam. “I made deals with the NPF till 2002 but after that, I did not enter into any land deal with them,” he said.

Aqeel claimed that a NPF officer had demanded money from him but he had refused, following which this report was compiled against him. “[NPF Estate Director] Shahid Iqbal has himself given me a clearance certificate which establishes that fact that I do not owe anything to the foundation,” he claimed.

However, when The Express Tribune contacted Iqbal, he challenged the claim that Aqeel had been given a clearance certificate. He said that he had documentary evidence of the fraud committed by Aqeel in connivance with former NPF officials. He said he has already sent an inquiry report to the interior ministry.

The report says that under an agreement, Aqeel was purchasing land for NPF. On May 16, 2002, he requested affiliation of 75 kanals and submitted a list of 178 nominees. The NPF accepted the requested and allotted 41 kanals to 120 of his nominees. On August 25, 2003, he again requested affiliation of 60 kanals and NPF allotted 33 kanals to his nominees. However, to-date, he has not transferred any land to the NPF. He has not submitted any revenue papers or even a rough map of the land.

On April 29, 2004, Aqeel again requested for affiliation of 50 kanals without proper documentation and 40 kanals of developed land were allotted to his nominees.

Then, on September 9, 2004, Aqeel surrendered 20 allotment letters and requested the authorities for commercial conversion of the area for building flats.

However, he had surrendered only allotment letters since no land was available. But, the request was accepted and 48 kanals, which previously belonged to SSP Nawaz Kiani, former inspector general Chaudhary Manzoor and his wife, and other police officers, were allotted to Aqeel even though he had not asked or paid for it, and neither had he transferred it in the name of the NPF. This piece of land is currently worth Rs4 billion.

As per the NPF’s records, all four of Aqeel’s requests are on his letterhead. It says that Aqeel successfully sold these plots and made good money by “surrendering fictitious letters as a goodwill gesture” and even commercial areas were allotted on his letterhead to different parties.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 30^th,  2011.