Federal Minister for Housing and Works, Faisal Saleh Hayat, on Friday prayed the apex court to form a judicial commission to probe into the scam in Federal Government Employees Housing Foundation's (FGEHF) project, wherein the top brass of Housing Ministry has allegedly been involved in multi-billion rupees bungling.
A three-member bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry was hearing a suo motu case regarding irregularities in purchase of land by FGEHF. The minister requested that a thorough probe should be made into the land scam to bring the responsible to book.
He submitted that he had issued directives for preliminary inquiry into 3000 kanals land purchase deal in Zone-IV of National Park Area of the federal capital, where construction was prohibited. The land was purchased for the Prime Minister Housing Scheme.
The minister proposed that a thorough investigation should be conducted to fix responsibility against top officials of different ministries. The ministry's report revealed that as per revenue record, land worth Rs 44,000 per kanal was purchased at exorbitant rate of Rs 950,000 per kanal from Green Trees Private Limited.
The report of housing ministry reveals that a top-level bureaucrat, who was member of executive committee that sanctioned the deal, was real brother of Green Trees' owner. The minister requested the chief justice to set up a commission, headed by a retired judge of Supreme Court Justice Ijaz Chaudhry.
The CJP remarked, "there is no need of judicial commission for everything." The CJ proposed that Khawaja Zaheer, who had investigated the last year flood causes, should be assigned the task to probe the scam. Faisal maintained that as top bureaucrats were involved in the scam, therefore, a retired judge of the superior court should investigate the matter. The chief justice then directed CDA, Green Trees Pvt Ltd's counsels and the minister to sit down together and inform the court the names for commission in next hearing.
The counsel for Green Trees contradicted Faisal Saleh Hayat's allegations, and submitted before the court that it was a move of character assassination of top-level government official. After the hearing, the company's lawyer, Raja Arshad, while talking to reporters said that he would submit a list carrying names of the front men of top politicians and officials of the housing ministry who were trying to blackmail Green Trees' officials.The hearing was adjourned till June 30.