NAB refutes Punjab govt’s claims

F.P. Report

LAHORE: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Sunday rejected the Punjab government’s claim pertaining to the arrest of former Lahore Development Authority (LDA) Director General (DG) Ahad Cheema in Ashiana Housing scheme scandal.

In a statement issued by the anti-graft agency on Sunday, Ahad Cheema carried out the activities in Punjab Ashiana scheme with a criminal intent and accepted the illegal bidding proposal of KASA Developers.

The award was given to M/S Lahore Casa Developers (JV) – a proxy group of M/S Paragon City (Pvt) Limited (which is stated to be developed by Railways Minister Saad Rafique) – hence causing a loss of millions of rupees to the exchequer.

Shafiq’s company was part of the joint venture Lahore Casa Developers that NAB has said was ineligible to receive the contract.

The NAB spokesman further said that ex-LDA DG awarded a contract to a C-4 company Bismillah Engineering that was only eligible to receive contracts up to 150 million rupees.

KASA Developers was a joint venture of Bismillah Engineering Services, Sparco Construction Company and China First Metallurgical Group, the statement added.

The company owned ninety percent shares, while Sparco Construction Company and China First Metallurgical held ten percent shares each yet a joint venture of the three companies was awarded a contract in 2015.

By awarding the contact to a C-4 company, Cheema caused a loss of Rs455 million to the national exchequer, the NAB spokesperson stated.

The statement further added that Nadeem Zia, owner of Paragon City transferred Rs 31 million from his bank account in DHA to Ahad Cheema’s Allied Bank Shadipura branch account.

The NAB spokesperson further stated 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.

The former Development Authority (LDA) DG and his relatives through this amount obtained a 32-Kanal piece of land in Lahore Cantonment, registered in the name of his cousin and siblings Ahmed Cheema and Sadia Mansoor, said statement said.