Housing scam hearing put off till 18th

Court was set to announce verdict when it noted SC’s order

LAHORE:

An accountability court on Tuesday put off the hearing of the Ashiana Housing scam case against former premier Shehbaz Sharif and other accused till November 18.

The court was originally scheduled to announce its verdict in the case on Tuesday but it noted that the Supreme Court’s order on October 31 had created an ambiguity.

It added that the verdict in the case would be announced after the interpretation of the top court’s order.
On October 31, the SC allowed accountability courts to continue their proceedings in corruption cases, but stopped them from giving the final orders.

The lawyers told Judge Malik Ali Zulqarnain that the SC’s order affected cases in which the accused were acquitted after the amendments to the accountability law.

However, the judge believed it was better to seek clarification from some forum.

The lawyers told the judge that SC order clearly stated that it would have no effect on merit petitions but the judge told them that not only him, but all his colleagues in other accountability courts were confused following the verdict.
The judge declared that they could not violate the order of the SC.

Last month, the court acquitted two key accused -- Nadeem Zia, and Kamran Kayani -- in the housing scheme scam reference filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

Shehbaz has been granted permanent exemption from appearing in the court.

Other suspects in the case include current caretaker Privatisation Minister Fawad Hasan Fawad, incumbent interim PM’s assistant Ahad Cheema, Bismillah Construction Company Chief Executive Shahid Shafiq, Bilal Qadwai, Imtiaz Haider, Asrar Saeed and Arif Butt.

The court has already indicted 10 suspects in the Ashiana Housing scam case.

The NAB reference alleged that 16,000 low-income citizens invested Rs610 million in the housing scheme.

The Punjab Land Development Company (PLDC) entered into a contract on January 20, 2015, resulting in the government incurring losses of more than Rs645 million because of the incompetence of the firms.