PR role in land scam baffles Public Accounts Committee

Railways, NAB directed to submit final report within six weeks

ISLAMABAD: The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has shown extreme displeasure over Pakistan Railways (PR) for not bothering to probe the scam involving leasing out of its 140 acres of land to set up a state-of-the-art golf club in Lahore – some 15 years after it was unearthed.

The Royal Palm Golf and Country Club was established in Lahore in 2001 on a prized plot of Railways sold allegedly to a private firm at a throwaway price.

PAC Chairperson Syed Khursheed Shah chaired the committee meeting on Wednesday where the railways and the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) were directed to submit final report about the scam and the persons involved in it within six weeks.



The majority of PAC members chided the PR representatives for relying on NAB and the Supreme Court, and shrugging off its responsibility from probing into the billion-rupee scam on its land.

According to the documents shared with the members, a three-member committee had evaluated and finalised bids with a Malaysian company -- Maxcorp -- where in violation of the agreed terms and conditions, the area was enhanced from 103 to 140 acres of land.

The documents were forged by drastically reducing the rates of land usage charges from Rs52 per square yard to Rs4 per square yard, in addition to changing the figures from Rs21.6 million per annum to Rs2.16 million per annum.

The company was also supposed to construct a five-star hotel, marquee. Interestingly, the company was not included even in the pre-qualified bid. However, it was given the contract.

PR Secretary Parveen Agha also told the members that currently there are about 3,000 members of the club and the membership fee was Rs1 million to Rs1.5 million.

“Our hands were tied, we couldn’t do anything as it was the time when the military was running the affairs of the country and the PR,” said PR Director General Legal Tahir Pervaiz.

He was referring to the year 2000 when former military general Pervez Musharraf was heading the country as the chief executive.



To this Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) lawmaker Arif Alvi said documents suggest that the railways became a party to the case in 2012, and in 2014 it termed all the terms and agreements with the company ‘non-transparent’.

“So, when the democratic government came in 2008, what was the status of the probe,” Alvi asked.

Nobody from the railways side was able to satisfy Shah and other members when asked as to why the ministry kept silent for over 14 years and came into action when the issue was taken up by apex court on a plea of former railway minister Ishaq Khakwani.

“The case was in the Supreme Court and later it was referred to NAB, so we were looking onto those probes,” the PR secretary said, to which the director general (legal) confessed, saying: “Yes, we did not properly look into the matter.”

PTI’s Senator Azam Swati asked the secretary why they were reluctant to name those who were involved in the case even if they belonged to some ‘powerful’ institution.

Parveen said she was not hiding any name and stated that Lt-Gen (retd) Javed Ashraf Qazi, the then Railways minister, Lt-Gen Zafar and Major General Hamid Hassan Butt (the then GM Railways) were involved in all the deals.

NAB Rawalpindi Director Rizwan Khan said the case was referred to them by the apex court in 2012 and said most of the charges against the accused were confirmed but due to lack of original record missing from the railways, it was inadmissible for criminal proceedings. “The PR provided us photocopies [of the record],” he said.

The committee chairperson chided NAB official for sitting on the inquiry since then and told him to submit the final report in six weeks.

Over the fate of members of the club, the director general (legal) stated that they promised that the rights of the people would be protected.

Shah concluded the meeting by directing the PR secretary to submit the report of the internal probe into the matter and against officials involved in the whole scam