Court to start process to declare Nawaz absconder in land allotment case

Case dates back to Nawaz's time as CM Punjab

LAHORE:

An accountability court on Thursday decided to initiate proceedings to declare former prime minister Nawaz Sharif an absconder in an illegal land allotment case involving Jang Group Editor-in-Chief Mir Shakilur Rehman.

According to the NAB prosecutor, Rehman had illegally acquired 54 plots, each measuring one kanal, along with two streets, in Lahore’s Johar Town in 1986 in connivance with the then Punjab chief minister Nawaz Sharif.

Under Lahore Development Authority (LDA) rules, an exemption could be granted for 15 plots only. However, 54 plots were exempted in a single block on Nawaz's approval. Under the exemption policy, 70 per cent of the land was supposed to remain with the LDA but it was never transferred.

Judge Asad Ali presided the hearing of the case, in which an execution report of Nawaz’s non-bailable arrest warrant was also presented, sent by the country's high commission in London. The report stated that the accused has yet to receive the arrest warrants.

The court called for a progress report on declaring former premier a fugitive at the next hearing, and extended Rehman's judicial remand by 14 days.

Earlier, the PML-N supremo was declared a proclaimed offender in the Toshakhana reference earlier last month and had also refused to receive the arrest warrants issued in his name previously.