LAHORE – A Lahore High Court (LHC) division bench Tuesday adjourned hearingof bail petitions, filed by Leader of Opposition in the National AssemblyMuhammad Shehbaz Sharif in Ashiana-e-Iqbal Housing Scheme and Ramzan SugarMills cases, till February 6.The bench comprising Justice Malik Shahzad Ahmad Khan and Justice MirzaViqas Rauf heard the post-arrest bail petitions filed by the PakistanMuslim League-N chief.As proceedings commenced, National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) SpecialProsecutor Faisal Bukhari requested the bench to adjourn the matter andallow time for filing para-wise comments in the cases.However, the bench declined the adjournment request and directed ShehbazSharif’s counsel, Amjad Parvaiz, to advance his arguments.The counsel submitted that his client had been arrested on the charges ofmisuse of authority and causing a loss to the exchequer in theAshiana-e-Iqbal Housing scam.In response to a court query, the counsel submitted that an inquiry waslaunched in the scam on January 10, 2018 and subsequently, his clientappeared before the NAB investigation team whenever he was summoned.Although no role was ascribed to the applicant in the interim report andinterim challan, he was arrested on October 5 while he was present at NABLahore office in connection with the Saaf Pani Company scam, he added.Questioning the arrest of the applicant, Amjad further submitted that therewas no statement under Section 161 of the CrPC against the applicant,except for a verbal statement of Amir Latif, one of the owners of the Latifand Sons, whose Ashiana contract was canceled in 2013.At this stage, the bench asked the counsel that why the contract of M/sLatif and Sons was cancelled. It was alleged that the contract wascancelled to benefit Paragon Developers, it added.To which, the counsel responded that the contract of M/s Latif & Sons wascanceled due to serious lapses and the matter was referred to theanti-corruption establishment.To another court query, he stated that the contract was cancelled after thebank concerned stated that it did not issue the call deposit receipt (CDR)of the contract.Amjad Parvaiz submitted that the contract was not awarded to Paragon butCasa Developers in March 2015, and it was also canceled on April 10, 2017due to non-implementation of the contract by the contractor.At this, the bench mentioned that CASA Developers was a consortium of threecompanies including Bismillah Engineering, which was owned by the brotherof Paragon owner.To which, Amjad stated that there was no bar on the brother of Paragonowner to do business.However, the bench observed that the Bureau had alleged that the applicantmisused his authority and entrusted the contract to the Lahore DevelopmentAuthority (LDA) whereas only the Punjab Land Development Company (PLDC)board had powers for the purpose.Upon this, Amjad Parviaz replied that the matter was entrusted to the LDAby the PLDC board with the permissionto explore public-private partnership mode for development of the project.He submitted that even the contract of CASA Developers was cancelled by thePLDC board and his client did not play any role in that regard.Denying all the charges, the counsel contended that the applicant neithermisused his authority nor gained any personal benefits in the process. Hesubmitted that no loss was caused to the national exchequer as nogovernment land or money was given to the contractor. He pleaded with thecourt to grant benefit of bail to the applicant.At this, the bench adjourned the hearing till February 6 with a directionto the NAB prosecutor for filing para-wisecomments by the next date of hearing.The bench also adjourned the hearing of bail petition, filed by seniorbureaucrat Fawad Hassan Fawad in connection with the Ashiana-e-Iqbal scamtill Feb 6.It is pertinent to mention here that NAB had filed a supplementaryreference against PML-N President and Chairman Public Accounts CommitteeShehbaz Sharif and 12 others in the Ashiana-e-Iqbal Housing case onDecember 22, 2018. The supplementary reference consists of more than 1,000pages and spread over three volumes.NAB had accused Shehbaz Sharif of misusing his authority which resulted infailure of the project, depriving 61,000 applicants of the housing units.NAB alleged that Shehbaz Sharif, in connivance with former DG LDA AhadCheema, awarded the contract to a proxy.NAB had also alleged that Shehbaz Sharif misused his authority being chiefminister and got constructed a bridge in Chiniot which facilitated RamzanSugar Mills, owned by the Shehbaz family. NAB claimed that Rs 200 millionwas paid from the national kitty and Shehbaz Sharif illegally ordered forthe construction of the bridge.
Shahbaz Sharif bail plea: LHC rejects NAB request
