LAHORE – The Lahore High Court has not found any misuse of authority by former chief minister Punjab, Shehbaz Sharif in the Ashiana-e-Iqbal project as it released the detailed verdict on Friday.
The verdict issued on bail petitions of leader of opposition in the National Assembly in Ashiana Housing Scheme and Ramzan Sugar Mills rules that the allegations of misuse of authority and cancelling the first contract of the scheme have not been supported by any documentary evidence by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).
“Moreover, the allegation against Shahbaz Sharif/petitioner that he got cancelled the contract of M/s Chaudhry Abdul Latif & Sons has also not been supported by the record of the present case because the contract was never cancelled rather the matter was settled through a written agreement with the mutual consent of the parties,” says the verdict issued by a two-judge bench comprising Justice Malik Shahzad Ahmad Khan and Justice Mirza Viqas Rauf.
The bench had approved bail plea of Mr Sharif on Feb 14 through a short order following which Sharif moved out of the minister’s enclave which was declared sub-jail.
The detailed verdict states that there was no mentioning in the record that Shehbaz Sharif was a signatory to the mutual agreement signed by Punjab Land Development Company (PLDC), then chief executive officer Shahid Latif and contractor Chaudhry Amir Latif.
The verdict apparently absolves Sharif of any charges as it states that even another PLDC’s former CEO Tahir Khurshid, the star witness of the NAB, had not uttered a single word in his statement that he was pressurised by Sharif to cancel the contract in question.
The bench also ruled that the project was transferred from the PLDC to the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) with the approval of PLDC board of directors which was not illegal.
“It is evident from the record that the PLDC BoD itself decided to transfer Ashiana-i-Iqbal Project to the LDA for its execution through public private partnership mode,” the bench remarks.
The bench also wondered that it was not understandable as to why the NAB was insisting that the project should have been executed in the government mode instead of public-private partnership mode.
“It is also noteworthy that even the sitting government has launched a project for the construction of 5,000,000 houses in Pakistan under the same mode i.e. public-private partnership and no objection has so far been raised in this respect by the NAB,” inquires the bench.
‘Shahbaz being the chief minister of the province had the authority under the Punjab government Rules of Business 2011 to transfer any subject or matter mentioned in the 2nd schedule from one department to any other department,’ the bench observes.
The provincial high court ruled that the NAB also failed to establish any relation between the petitioner and the owners of M/s Paragon City for which the initial contract of the housing scheme was allegedly cancelled.
“Learned special prosecutor for the NAB has frankly conceded that the owners of M/s Paragon City (Pvt) Limited have no relationship with Shahbaz Sharif,” notes the bench.
The judges remarked that even the subsequent contract awarded to M/s Casa Developers was cancelled about six months prior to receiving the first complaint by the NAB.
“Not a single inch of the state land has been transferred in the name of any person/contractor till today. Not a single affectee of the Ashiana-i-Iqbal Scheme out of 61,000 affectees as claimed by the NAB made any statement before it,” the bench ruled.
The judges observed that that apparently there was not a single affectee in this case because no amount for the allotment of any plot from any person has been received so far except the non-refundable fee of Rs1,000 against an application form. This fee was also deposited in the government treasury.
Regarding the Ramzan Sugar Mills case, the detailed verdict says the drain constructed by the government in Chiniot is for the benefit of the public and no evidence has been found against the petitioner to substantiate allegations of receiving kickbacks or embezzlement of public funds.
The accountability watchdog had alleged that Shahbaz being chief minister had issued a directive for the construction of a drain in Chiniot primarily for the use of Ramzan Sugar Mills owned by his sons.
NAB had estimated that Rs200 million were spent for this purpose from public money.
