This is the third time that NAB has intervened and asked for complete records of the project, the official said. PHOTO: FILE
The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) seems to be getting tired of hearing complaints of rigged plot balloting and alleged changes to the layout plan of the Park Enclave housing scheme, and has now launched a formal inquiry.
NAB has sought the complete records of the under-construction housing project — inaugurated by the former premier Yousuf Raza Gilani in 2011.
“NAB’s Awareness and Prevention Cell investigated and found complaints launched by allottees at the scheme admissible. Now a formal inquiry into the issue has been ordered,” said NAB Additional Director for Media Ramzan Sajid.
He said records including the original and current layout plans, details of the number of plots in the scheme, and brochures distributed among the allottees while publicising the scheme have been sought from the CDA.
Though questions such as rigged plots balloting and changes in the original layout plan remain unanswered till today, time and again, NAB interventions into the scheme are adding to the problems instead of resolving it, said a senior official of the authority.
This is the third time that NAB has intervened and asked for complete records of the project, the official said.
In 2012, the NAB Awareness and Prevention Cell (APC) asked for the records for the first time after reports of changes in the original layout plan surfaced in the media.
Two years have since lapsed, but NAB was unable to finalise its inquiry into the issue.
During the last hearing before the Awareness and Prevention Cell, some CDA IT wing officials had accused former chairman Farkhand Iqbal of forcing them to rig the ballot. Many parliamentarians from the then-ruling PPP and a few well-known journalists were declared the owners of lucrative plots in the ‘random’ ballot, while the general public mostly got plots along a seasonal stream passing through the scheme. Oddly, none of the ‘big names’ got a plot near the stream.
Meanwhile, the CDA has also decided to expedite the completion of pending internal inquiries.
The Federal Investigation Authority (FIA) is presently investigating 21 cases against CDA staffers, while 93 departmental enquiries are also under way. In addition to the pending departmental and FIA cases, there are also pending inquiries which were initiated in light of the recommendations of the judicial commission constituted by Islamabad High Court in 2013.
In a Monday meeting presided over by CDA Chairman Maroof Afzal, pending inquiries initiated on the recommendations of judicial commission were discussed. The meeting was informed that some of those inquiries are pending with the CDA, while in others the inquiry officers were appointed by the Establishment Division.
The chairman ordered the early completion of inquiries pending with the CDA, while for those pending with the Establishment Division, he directed the board to contact the Establishment Division inquiry officers and request speedy disposal of the cases. He also directed the CDA inquiry officers to compile reports about the pending inquiries within a month.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 13th, 2014.
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