The Supreme Court on Friday reserved the verdict on controversial land leasing deal pertaining to 141 acres of Pakistan Railways land worth Rs 25-billion, involving three retired generals of Musharraf era. A two-member bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry with Justice Ghulam Rabbani reserved its decision after lawyers of both the parties concluded their arguments.
The counsel for secretary railways presented all the relevant records of the transaction, saying that he is assisting the court on the directives of his client so that a just decision could be reached. The Auditor General Railways placed a report before the court, carrying the facts and figures that the deal was a source of Rs 290 million loss to the organisation already running in deficit.
The counsel for the defendant, Husnain Construction Company, did not own the figure presented by the AG Pakistan Railways, saying that the deal did not cause any loss to PR, as the company had paid about Rs 40 million to the government last year. The other counsel representing Royal Palm Golf Club defended the transaction, adding that the whole process was carried out in a transparent manner following all rules and regulations of the lease.
The lawyer for Ishaq Khan Khakwani and Dr Mobashir Hassan - the petitioners, contended that the initial area, which had to be leased out, was around 103 acres but later on, it was found that instead of the mentioned price of land, 141 acres were given to the Royal Palms and Country Golf Club, Lahore, along with extending the period of lease to 49 years from 33 years in a objectionable manner in 2001.
A joint constitutional petition, challenging the lease agreement, involving 1,128 kanals of prime land of the Pakistan Railways, situated in the heart of Lahore city, executed between the Government and a Malaysian consortium associated by two Pakistan''s Lahore-based companies - Husnain Construction Company (Pvt) Ltd and Unicon Consulting Service (Pvt) Ltd on July 26, 2001, was filed before the Supreme Court.
The petition was filed by Ishaq Khan Khakwani, former MNA and Dr Mubashir Hassan, founder member of the PPP under Article 184(3) of the constitution, making the government, through secretary establishment division, Railways minister, Railways Board, Maxcorp Development Sdn Bhd of Malaysia, Husnain Construction Company (Pvt) Limited, Unicon Consulting Services (Pvt) Limited, the then minister for railways, Lieutenant General Javed Ashraf Qazi (Retd), along with the former secretary and chairman Railways Lieutenant General Saeeduz Zafar (Retd), ex-general manager Railways Major General Hamid Hassan Butt (Retd), former secretary railways Khursheed Alam Khan and many others as respondents.
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