Golf Club land case: Rashid asks whether NAB has courage to hold trial of generals

Federal Minister for Pakistan Railways, Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed has said that action also needs to be taken against bureaucracy to end corruption in the country, and questioned whether the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has the courage to hold the trial of generals.
The NAB last year filed a reference in Islamabad accountability court against Lt Gen Javed Ashraf Qazi (retd), ex-Chairman Railways and former Federal Minister for Communication and Railways, Lt Gen Saeeduz Zafar (retd), Maj Gen Hamid Hassan Butt (retd), Pakistan Railways former Member Finance Brig Akhtar Ali Baig (retd), Pakistan Railways former GM Iqbal Samad Khan, Pakistan Railways former Operations General Manager (GM) Khurshid Ahmed Khan, Directorate of Property & Land Pakistan Railways Director Abdul Ghaffar, Pakistan Railways former Divisional Superintendents Ramzan Sheikh and Pervaiz Qureshi, sponsors of Royal Palm Golf Club, and five other officers/officials.
Appearing before a three-member bench that heard suo motu on Royal Golf Club land, the railways minister said if the Golf Club's land is given back to the Railways then it will offer it to the UAE and Qatari investors and can fetch a huge money and thus will reduce the Railways' deficit. He said a consortium has paid only Rs 44 million in 17 years as it received 141 acres of land at the rate of Rs 4 per square yard. A three-member bench, headed by Sheikh Azmat Saeed, heard a suo moto regarding the lease of Railways Royal Palm Golf and Country Club to a consortium comprising MAX Corps Husnain Construction and Uni Corn Consultancy Services Private Limited in July 2001.
Initially 103 acres of land was given, which was later increased to 141 acres and lease period was enhanced from 33 years to 49 years. The bench after hearing the arguments reserved its judgement.
Salman Akram Raja, representing Pakistan Railways, prayed to the court to declare the agreement signed between Pakistan Railways and Max Corps non est and void. He contended that the entire process to award contract was by-passed. He apprised the court that the accord was terminated by the Railways in 2016 but the consortium comprising MAX Corps Husnain Construction and Uni Corn Consultancy Services Private Limited challenged it in Lahore High Court. Raja said that National Assembly committee comprising members of all the major political parties thoroughly investigated the deal and came to the conclusion that the contract was not valid and legal. He said though the NAB had filed references against the persons who had awarded the contract, the Supreme Court should not lay off its hand from this case.
Syed Ali Zafar, arguing on behalf of Mainland Husnain, submitted that firstly each and every allegation made in the petition is mirrored in a reference filed by NAB in this very case in an Accountability Court. He submitted that any finding on any of the issues, whether in favour of or against Husnain, will prejudice the criminal trial and, therefore, either the court should dispose of the petition and wait for the final outcome of the trial in the accountability court or quash the reference and decide the matter itself.
He submitted further that the second question which arises in this case is whether the Supreme Court could proceed in the matter under Article 184(3) without a trial. Zafar submitted that under Article 10-A of the Constitution, the civil and criminal liabilities of any person have to be decided by fair trial and therefore Article 184(3) is not the appropriate remedy.
As a third preliminary submission, Zafar argued that the contract between the parties contained an arbitration clause which provided that all disputes must be settled through arbitration and, accordingly, this dispute between Pakistan Railways and Husnain has to be decided by arbitration.
On merits of the case, Zafar submitted that Pakistan Railways has kept changing its stance with the change of government which is unfair. A businessman does the business with a government and not with any political party and once an agreement is executed with the government, it is against all norms of justice to deny its validity. Pakistan Railways entered into the contract and now once the project has been built, it is claiming that the original contract is wrong and trying to benefit from their own faults by claiming that the fully built project be given back to them.
Justice Ijaz-ul-Ahsan noted that the advertisement for the lease of Railways land might have gone internationally, but many investors did not bid for it as they might be thinking that the Golf Club, restaurant and sports complex could not be built on 103 acres, but the consortium did not know something that the areas of Golf Club is not 103 but more which they got, i.e., 141 acres.
Earlier, Allahyar Nawaz, representing the petitioner PTI leader Ishaq Khakwani, argued that this is a classic case of kleptocracy as how the powerful and the business class came together.
He said General Pervez Musharraf (retd) gave Railways to generals and Lt-Gen Javed Ashraf Qazi (retd) was first appointed as chairman and then was made federal minister of Pakistan Railways. He said upon the directive of the then Prime Minister, Shaukat Aziz, Max Corps, which was not in pre-qualification proceeding, was made part of the consortium. Lt-Gen Qazi (retd) started private negotiation with the bidder.
He said instead of referring the matter to the NAB, the apex court should itself proceed against the then railways officials and the then minister Qazi, allegedly involved in illegal deal. "I have no faith in NAB because after seven years, they filed the reference against the persons involved in the scam last year. Punitive legal proceeding should be initiated against them." He requested the bench to "inflict heavy damages and penalties upon them."