Ashiana Housing scam: NAB court grants seven-day remand of Bismillah Engineering CEO

F.P. Report

LAHORE: An accountability court on Monday granted seven-day physical remand of Shahid Iqbal, the CEO of Bismillah Engineering, in the Ashiana-e-Iqbal corruption scandal case.

Bismillah Engineering is one of the three companies that were part of a joint venture, Lahore Casa Developers, which is accused of being illegally awarded a contract for the Ashiana-e-Iqbal housing scheme project.

Shafiq will be presented before the court, along with former director general of the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) Ahad Cheema, on March 5.

`The NAB had launched an investigation against the management, officers, and officials of the Punjab Land Development Company (PLDC), management and owners of Lahore Casa Developers, officers and officials of the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) after the government cancelled the award of the Ashiana-e-Iqbal housing scheme to the successful bidder M/S Chaudhry Latif and Sons.

A NAB spokesperson on Sunday stated that, in 2015, former LDA director general Ahad Cheema had misused his authority with criminal intent to award a contract to Bismillah Engineering —a C-4 company part of the joint venture Lahore Casa Developers that was ineligible for the contract.

Bismillah Engineering was only eligible to receive contracts up to 150 million rupees, the NAB spokesperson had stated, adding that Cheema caused a loss of 455 million rupees to the national exchequer.

He added that 61,000 citizens had filed requests for the Ashiana Housing Scheme and paid 60 million rupees in processing fees. The cost of the project had increased due to a delay.