The Chief Justice of Pakistan on Saturday sought a complete record from the NAB by December 15 showing how many suspects in the cases were on bail, arrested or absconders along with progress in investigations. Chief Justice expressed serious dismay over the slow pace of investigation in LDA-City housing scam by the NAB.
The CJP observed that the investigation being held at a snail's pace would ultimately benefit the bigwigs involved in the housing scam. A special bench headed by the CJP which assembled here at 5pm was hearing an application of the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) director general seeking to procure and transfer remaining land for the housing scheme by the development partners.
The LDA counsel submitted that the land so far acquired by the LDA partners was scattered. He said acquisition of another 20,000 kanals of land was required to compact the housing scheme. To a court's query, the counsel stated that a Joint Venture (JV) of five developers/companies failed to acquire the agreed land for the LDA under the public-private partnership program. He said some of these company owners were in the custody of NAB while others escaped abroad.
The NAB's counsel however told the court that actions were being taken to arrest the absconders while some of the suspects including former railways minister Khwaja Saad Rafiq and his brother Khwaja Salman Rafiq had been granted pre-arrest bail by the Lahore High Court.