RAWALPINDI: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Saturday arrested MNA Anjum Aqeel Khan after the court of Special Judge Central refused to grant him pre-arrest bail for allegedly depriving the National Police Foundation (NPF) of acquiring land to develop a housing society.
Along with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz MNA from Islamabad, the FIA staff also arrested two former managing directors of the NPF housing society – Abdul Hanan and Chaudhry Iftkhar – after their pleas for bail-before-arrest were rejected by Judge Mina Khalid Shabir.
The judge gave the decision regarding the MNA’s bail plea on December 3 after the accused legislator obtained extensions 14 times — the first plea was filed on July 12, this year.
The court refused to agree with the arguments of Zaffar Ali Shah, Aqeel’s legal counsel, and other defence lawyers as they claimed that the matter was of civil nature.
The lawyers argued that the case involved transfer of land, a case that is typically tried by the civil courts, but the federal government on a political basis had given it a criminal colour.
Meanwhile, the FIA has accused Aqeel of not providing the land to the NPF under an agreement that was signed 10 years ago to develop a housing society in Islamabad. The FIA stated that this breach of contract caused Rs5.75 billion in losses to the national exchequer.
The arrested MNA had made different agreements with the NPF to provide land for developing the housing society but failed to fulfil the agreements and the project could not begin, the FIA maintained.
Investigators said the MNA had promised in the Supreme Court that he would provide some land to the NPF but could not do so since some of his partners said they would not allow the transfer of their land.
The two arrested former managing directors had been accused of not taking care of the delay in procurement of the land for the housing project.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 4th, 2011.
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