Land scam inquiry: Chief commissioner to submit report in March

Circle registrar allegedly involved in setting up fake housing societies.

ISLAMABAD:

Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday directed the capital’s chief commissioner to submit an inquiry report against a circle registrar involved in multi-million rupees scam by the first week of March.

In September last year, Asad Malik had filed a petition against Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) circle registrar Malik Deen who engineered a Rs7.1 million scam by establishing a fake housing society in the suburbs.

Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui had directed Islamabad Chief Commissioner Tariq Pirzada to suspend Deen and initiate an inquiry against him and submit a report in one month. However Justice Siddiqui could not hear this case because his term expired last November.

On Monday, when Justice Siddiqui resumed the hearing of the case, he asked about the status of inquiry, Abdul Wahid Qureshi, counsel of ICT, claimed that it was still ongoing and requested the court to give him some time.

Asad Malik maintained that he purchased plots in 2005 in a private housing society Gulberg Safari from a private firm, Leo International, which was run by Deen, for Rs7.1 million.



He had told the court that when he found out that the company was fake and there was no such housing project, he tried to get his money back. But the circle registrar had ordered that the company account be frozen.

He had said that Deen was appointed to his current post years ago, but no senior official dared remove him due to his connections.

Another victim, Ahsan Imtiaz Bhatti, a member of Government Officer Cooperative Farming Society had also filed a petition last year, accusing Deen of depriving him of his plot in the 532 kanal- society worth billions of rupees in the captial’s scenic suburbs.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 12^th, 2013.