The Lahore High Court on Tuesday reserved its verdict in a petition of former DG Lahore Development Authority (LDA) Ahad Cheema against his arrest in Ashiana-e-Iqbal Housing Scheme's scam. Earlier, Cheema's counsel Azam Nazir Tarar and the NAB prosecutor concluded their arguments before the bench.
The petitioner's counsel contended that the NAB violated its own laws by arresting Cheema without any justification. He said Cheema had extended his full cooperation to the investigating team of the bureau and also furnished all information required in the summons. He pointed out that the petitioner stood transferred from the post of LDA director general on April 28, 2016, and all the record whatsoever pertaining to the said housing project was never in his personal possession rather it lied with the authority. He asked the court to set aside the arrest of the petitioner and order the NAB to release him.
NAB prosecutor Rana Arif also objected the maintainability of the petition and said the petitioner was on physical remand. He asked the court to dismiss the petition for being not maintainable as arrest could not be challenged during physical remand. He said all legal requirements had been fulfilled before the arrest of the petitioner. The bench after hearing the arguments from both sides reserved its verdict. vThe same bench also dismissed another petition of a co-suspect in the scam Shahid Shafiq Faridi challenging several provisions of the NAB ordinance.
The petitioner Shahid Shafiq of Bismillah Engineering had contended that the provisions of the ordinance empowering the NAB to make arrests on mere allegations had been repealed and NAB acted beyond its jurisdiction.
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