Ahad Cheema, others involved in fraud: NAB officer

NAB to seek further physical remand today

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Tuesday claimed that Ahad Cheema, ex-director general of Lahore Development Authority (LDA), was involved in fraud and misuse of authority.

Cheema was handed over to the accountability body on a 14-day physical remand along with three other accused in the Aashiyana-i-Iqbal Housing Scam on April 4.

The bureaucrat and the owner of a private company, Shahid Shafiq, were presented in court and a NAB official stated that Shafiq managed to attain construction contracts on the basis of fraudulent documents.

The former LDA DG and Shafiq were presented in court and the accountability body is expected to seek a further extension of their remand from accountability court judge Najmul Hassan.

An accountability court is hearing petition for extension of judicial remand of Ahad Khan Cheema, Shahid Shafiq, Imtiaz Haider and Bilal Qadwai.

Justice Syed Najamul Hasan was conducting the hearing for petition filed by the prosecution.

During the hearing, terms and conditions for Paragon City, the project which was to be built on 1,000 kanal of land, were changed, investigation officer revealed, adding that LDA did not consult any expert to evaluate and ascertain the impact of alterations.

The project was developed by PLDC, NAB investigation officer said.

Punjab government has already developed Ashiyana Housing Scheme, the investigation officer revealed. Changes in Ashiyana Iqbal scheme were made to sponsor Paragon City. He added that LDA awarded the contract in violation of given rules and regulations. “The project is worth Rs14 billion while the developing it is only worth Rs15 million”

“Do you have any illness?” the court questioned Shahid Shafiq. Seeing no response, the investigation officer said that Shafiq did not cooperate owing to depression and tension. "His medical reports have been produced before the court" the investigation officer said, adding the suspect has frequently retracted from his statements.

He added that Ali Sajjad Bhatta has also been included in the investigation. The investigation officer told the court hat Bhatta is the chief financial officer (CFO) of Paragon City.



Earlier, the court handed over the accused to NAB on physical remand for further investigations.

Six accused had been arrested by NAB for corruption in the case. Two of the six accused identified as, Israr Saeed and Arif Majeed, had been sent to jail on judicial remand since March when a NAB prosecutor told the court that they had confessed of their crime and had promised to become approvers in the case.