Kuri land scam: Court extends physical remand of two CDA officials

The accused allegedly made counterfeit allotments of hundreds of plots.

ISLAMABAD:

The city district court on Saturday extended the physical remand of two Capital Development Authority (CDA) officials in the Kuri Model Village land scam case. The two officials are accused of being involved in counterfeiting plots in Kuri village and violating the CDA by-laws.

The officials — Assistant Director Revenue Mian Aftab Ahmed and Assistant Admin Officer Land and Rehabilitation Directorate Asghar Ali — were produced by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) before the court. The FIA requested that their remands, which expired on August 15, be extended. The court extended their remands by 12 days to August 27.

According to the FIA, gross irregularities have been committed during the Survey of Build up Property (BUP) and allotments of residential plots in Kuri Model Village in Zone IV, Islamabad by the then Director Land and Rehabilitation, Waseem Shamshad, in connivance with several other officials.

The FIA said that Ahmed made fake BUPs by making a phony list of names that resulted in the illegal allotment of hundreds of plots, which were intended for Kuri villagers by the CDA, in compensation for their land which the civic body had acquired for developing a model village. Meanwhile Ali, who was working as an assistant, processed the files of the plots, violating the by-laws prescribed by the CDA.

The FIA told the court that Shamshad was dismissed from the CDA last year after being accused of allotting hundreds of fake plots in the compensation package. The cabinet division has sent its report on the scam to the Prime Minister, who suspended the allotments made by Shamshad.

The FIA officials contended that the CDA Chairperson has recently revealed that in his absence, Shamshad had issued 500 allotment letters of residential plots. A total of 3,961 allotment letters were issued, of which approval for more than 2,400 was never sought, FIA officials said.

The complaints about the fake entries in the award list were lodged with the CDA, members estate and the National Accountability Bureau after which all the allotment letters were cancelled. The FIA also told the court that the accused showed 4,500 individuals instead of 1,000, and fixed an amount of Rs800 million for compensation.

The FIA registered a case on August 17 against Former Director Land and Rehabilitation Waseem Shamshad, Deputy Director Abdul Rasheed Land and Rehabilitation Directorate, Admin Officer Asghar Ali, Assistant Director Technical Malik Mumtaz, Sub-Engineer Khaid Khokhar, CDA Assistant Director Revenue Mian Aftab Ahmed, Naib Tehsildar Ghulam Ali, Gardawar Ghaniur Rehman and Patwari Shahid Mehmood for their alleged involvement in the scam. The IA has only been able to arrest two of the accused so far.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 21^st, 2011.