NAB gets one-day physical remand of Ashiana Housing Scheme contractor
- By Web Desk -
- Feb 25, 2018
LAHORE: A court here on Sunday granted one-day physical remand of the chief executive officer of a private construction company in the Ashiana Housing Scheme scam.
The anti-graft watchdog arrested the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Bismillah Engineering Services, Shahid Shafiq, late Saturday after it was discovered that a contract worth Rs 14 billion granted to his company.
According to NAB officials, Shafiq’s company was part of Lahore Caca Developers, a joint venture, which was awarded the contract in violation of the relevant laws.
The accused was produced before a district court under stringent security measures today (Sunday), where the judicial magistrate granted one-day physical remand of Shafiq.
The graft body will produce Shafiq in an accountability court tomorrow to obtain 15-day physical remand for interrogation, sources said.
A day earlier, the NAB investigators obtained access to mobile and laptop data of former Director General (DG) Lahore Development Authority (LDA) Ahad Cheema.
The investigators would approach technical experts to secure the data which had been either formatted or deleted.
The former LDA chief’s arrested has drawn sharp reaction from a section of the Punjab bureaucracy and PML-N leaders.
Cheema, who is now serving as chief executive of the Punjab Power Company, was arrested from his office located in Gulbarg area of Lahore.
11-day physical remand
On Thursday, an accountability court in Lahore granted the NAB 11-day physical remand of Cheema in the Ashiana Housing Scheme scam.
According to the NAB notice, an inquiry against officials of the Punjab Land Development Company (PLDC) and LDA revealed that “prima facie Shahbaz Sharif, being the Chief Minister Punjab, had ordered certain illegal acts in sheer violation of the laid down procedures for functioning of PLDC due to which the company bore a huge financial loss.”
“Shahbaz had ordered cancellation of contract of Aashiana-e-Iqbal to a successful bidder, leading to award of the contract to other builder, which resulted into a loss of Rs 193 million approximately,” the notice reads.
He also directed PLDC to assign the project of Aashiana-e-Iqbal to LDA resulting into award of contracts to M/s Lahore Casa Developers (JV), thus causing loss of Rs 715 million approximately and ultimately failure of the project, according to the notice.
It says the chief minister had also directed PLDC to award consultancy services of Aashiana-e-Iqbal project for Rs 192 million approximately, but its actual cost was Rs 35 million.