Rigged balloting: In Park Enclave, corner plots reserved for those in power centre

NAB under pressure to close probe into irregularities.

ISLAMABAD:

Certain influential persons are said to have ‘turned’ National Accountability Bureau (NAB) officials, who in turn have informed the Capital Development Authority (CDA) that the bureau will be closing investigations into the alleged rigged balloting for plots in Park Enclave, The Express Tribune has learnt.

“We were informed [that the probe would be closed] by a senior official from the NAB Awareness and Prevention Division,” said a senior CDA official. “NAB has already lifted the ban it imposed around three months ago on the transfer of plots in Park Enclave.”



When asked to confirm this, NAB spokesperson Ramzan Sajid said he was not aware of any such decision and that the bureau’s Rawalpindi office has not issued a notification regarding it.

Amid the hearing of a case at the NAB Rawalpindi office a few weeks back, CDA officials admitted that balloting for Park Enclave plots last year was rigged by the CDA’s IT department on the directions of a  former chairman.

Digital rigging

Sources told The Express Tribune that during the last presentation to the NAB Awareness and Prevention Division on the alleged rigging, a member of the CDA team verbally admitted that the IT department of the authority had carried out the illegal action after being pressurised by then-CDA chairman Farkhand Iqbal.

Iqbal was unceremoniously removed from the chairmanship of the CDA after a string of corruption scandals and abuses of power during his short tenure were brought to light by the media. The team that appeared before the NAB authorities included Law Director Qasim Raza — who was the IT director when the balloting was conducted, Estate Director Abid Latif and other officials including the incumbent IT director.



“We did not submit anything in writing to the investigators but we did verbally admit that the balloting was rigged,” confirmed a member of the same CDA team.

The accused speaks

Talking to The Express Tribune, Farkhand Iqbal, who is currently serving at a senior post in the Planning Commission of Pakistan, termed the allegations “false and baseless” and said they were aimed at diverting the attention of people from the development of the housing society.

“I abided by the law during my tenure as CDA chairman. It is the culture of CDA employees to accuse former officers for their own wrongdoing,” he added.

Iqbal said no development had been work done by the authority on the site of the Park Enclave so far, adding that if the incumbent management thought that the balloting was rigged, they must cancel it.

“Why don’t they conduct a fresh balloting of plots instead of making it an issue,” Iqbal said.



Rigging the ballot

The balloting, held in July 2012, is replete with cases where the politically-connected individuals benefitted from an unusual amount of luck. Documents available reveal that journalists, politicians, parliamentarians, bureaucrats, and others close to the corridors of power were allotted either corner plots or plots at other choice locations.

Meanwhile, common citizens, both local and overseas Pakistanis, were allotted plots in poor locations, many of them along a 60ft wide seasonal stream that runs through the middle of Park Enclave.

Prominent among the ‘chosen’ few who were allotted corner plots are journalists Ansar Abbasi, Rauf Klasra, and Fahad Hussain, former NA speaker Dr Fehmida Mirza, former NA deputy speaker Faisal Kundi, former Public Accounts Committee chairman Nadeem Afzal Gondal, former Senate deputy chairman Sabir Ali Baloch, Mehwish Sher Afghan and relatives of former CDA chairman Imtiaz Inayat Elahi, including his wife Sabia Elahi and Salman Mahbub Elahi.

Interestingly, the ‘random’ ballot saw Ansar Abbasi’s brother awarded the plot right next to Ansar’s.

Another select group of notables got plots at prime locations facing parks, open spaces and 100ft roads.

These lucky ones include former ministers and parliamentarians such as Qamar Zaman Kaira, Sajid Hussain Toori, Nauman Islam Sheikh, Islamuddin Sheikh, Nasir Ali Shah, Sumsam Ali Bokhari, Nawab Ali Wassan, Sardar Talib Nakai, Wasim Sajjad, Mir Amer Ali Khan Magsi, Aijaz Hussain Jakhrani, Shujaul Mulk Khan, Imtiaz Safdar Warraich, Arbab Alamgir Khan, Nawabzada Akbar Magsi, and Mehreen Razzaq Bhutto. The documents also show that an influential real estate dealer from the federal capital applied for and got three plots at prime locations.

Through the alleged rigged balloting, only non-VIPS were given plots along the stream and the depression area. Apart from NAB, the Senate and National Assembly standing committees on the cabinet have also been investigating the issue.

NAB spokesperson Ramzan Sajid had said that after the last meeting with CDA officials, NAB officials determined that a number of irregularities had been committed during balloting.

“NAB authorities are expected to order a formal inquiry into the issue,” Sajid had said earlier, but the situation seems different now.

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