The Supreme Court on Thursday issued notices to former Chief Minister of Punjab Shahbaz Sharif and former Secretary (Implementation) to CM Punjab Fawwad Hassan Fawad in Ashiana Iqbal Housing project case.
A three-judge bench, headed by Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed, heard the National Accountability Bureau's appeals against the Lahore High Court verdict to grant bails to Shahbaz Sharif and Fawad Hassan Fawad in Ashiana Iqbal Housing project case.
Special Prosecutor General NAB Naeem Bukhari said that the Division Bench of Lahore High Court did not apply its mind, hurriedly came to conclusion and granted the bails. He said the High Court did not consider the parameters laid down by the apex court for grant of bail, adding that as per the SC judgement, the bail could be granted in extreme hardship cases. He said the NAB gathered sufficient material against the accused. However, the High Court did not appreciate it and turned down the NAB request against granting bails.
Bukhari argued that nothing could have happened without the involvement of the chief minister and said that Sharif is the architect of the housing project. He requested that notices be issued to all the accused and claimed that there is sufficient material available on record for the cancellation of their bails.
He questioned how Fawwad could be let of the hook and informed that Ahad Cheema and Fawad Hassan are in jail in other cases, while two of accused have become approver. Some of the accused have got pre- or post-arrest bails.
Justice Maqbool Baqar asked the prosecutor general to argue the case as per the record. He asked from Naeem Bukhari whether the ex-CM was not competent to approve the contract.
Justice Ijaz-ul-Ahsan asked, "You mean to say though sufficient material was placed but the former chief minister did not examine the record." Justice Baqir said whether summary was not placed.
The PG said Fawad Hassan had compelled the directors to cancel the contract. He said in the first contract all the 3,000 kanals of land was for the construction of houses for low-income class. But it was cancelled and then 1,000 kanals of land was allocated for the low-income class and 2,000 kanals of state land to M/s Paragon City (Pvt) Limited as the project land was situated adjacent to the said housing society. He with co-accused Ahad Khan Cheema, ex-DG LDA, had transferred the project from PLDC to LDA.
It said that on 24-03-2014, the ex-CM Punjab visited the site and arbitrarily and without assigning any reason directed that the project be undertaken under private-public partnership (PPP) mode.
The NAB claimed that Fawad received illegal pecuniary benefit of Rs 55 million from accused Kamran Kayani, owner of M/s Conpro Service (Pvt) Ltd. The Punjab Land Development Company (PLDC) had awarded the contract to the lowest bidder i.e. Chaudhry A Latif and Sons.
Justice Ijaz questioned why the project was bifurcated. Naeem Bukhari contended that there was no reason why the erstwhile Punjab government moved from public project to public-private project.
Justice Sheikh Azmat on the conclusion of arguments issued notices and said that they also like to hear all the connected appeals regarding the matter and decide the case, and adjourned the hearing until 2nd May.
Last month the NAB had filed the appeal under Article 185 of Constitution against the Lahore High Court (LHC) order dated 14-02-2019 in Ashiana Iqbal and Ramzan Sugar Mills cases in the apex court.
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