Five witnesses cross-examined in Ashiana housing scam case

LAHORE: An accountability court on Thursday completed cross-examination of five witnesses in Ashiana housing scam case, ARY News reported.

The hearing was conducted by the judge Amjad Nazir Chaudhry.

The accountability court summoned more witnesses of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in the case and adjourned further hearing until January 14.

It may be noted here that the court had earlier given exemption to Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif and another accused Fawad Hasan Fawad from personal appearance in the hearing .

The court has extended the judicial remand of accused Ahad Cheema and co-accused Shahid Shafiq.

On November 25 last year, the Supreme Court had granted bail to the Lahore Development Authority’s (LDA) former director general Ahad Cheema and co-accused Shahid Shafiq in a case related to the Ashiana Housing Scheme case.

Ahad Cheema is facing multiple cases including the Ashiana Housing Scheme scam involving Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif.

He had been arrested in February, 2018 on charges of misusing his authority by awarding Ashiana Housing contract worth Rs14 billion to Lahore Casa Developers, that was ineligible for the contract.

According to the NAB reference around 16,000 people had deposited 610 million rupees for Ashiana Iqbal Housing scheme and the project could not be started even after three years.

The national exchequer suffered over 640 million rupees losses in the project, the NAB charged in its reference.