ISLAMABAD — The Joint Investigation Team (JIT) Tuesday informed the Supreme Court that former prime minister Nawaz Sharif had illegally allotted 14,398 acre land of Hazrat Baba Farid-ud-Din Ganj Shakar’s shrine in Pakpattan.
A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar heard a case pertaining to the allotment of Pakpattan shrine’s land to an individual, Dewan Ghulam Qutab, by Nawaz Sharif as Punjab chief minister in 1985.
At the outset of proceedings, JIT head Dr Hussain Asghar submitted the report which stated that the then Punjab chief minister Nawaz Sharif had illegally allotted the land of Pakpattan shrine in 1985.
“The first inquiry report prepared in 2015 had held the then chief minister responsible, however, his name was removed in another report in 2016,” the JIT chief told the court.
Dr. Hussain Asghar said, “The lands of Hujra Shah Muqeem and Hafiz Jamal Shrine were also transferred by Nawaz Sharif during the same tenure.”
JIT head recommended that since the then chief minister did not have the authority to transfer the land, so the land should be retrieved and criminal proceedings be initiated against Nawaz Sharif, then secretary to chief minister Syed Javed Iqbal Bukhari, the legal heirs of Deewan Ghulam Qutub Din, the assistant administrator of Auqaf Pakpattan during the period from 1969 to 1986 and the patwaris (revenue officials) of the area “where these irregularities and illegalities were committed”.
The chief justice observed that time had changed and a third inquiry report had been prepared now.
Under which law the then Punjab chief minister took back the notification for the land which was donated and how the property that was donated, was sold, he asked.
Justice Ijazul Ahsan remarked, “The district judge and the high court had ordered that the notification of the donated land cannot be withdrawn. Then under which law was the notification withdrawn?”
Dr Asghar said, “The then secretary to the chief minister has admitted that the notification was withdrawn on the chief minister’s directives.”
However, Munawar Dogal, counsel for Nawaz Sharif, said, “My client has earlier denied withdrawing the
notification.”
“You’re playing the role of a person more loyal to the king than the king himself,” the CJP remarked. “We may order the Anti-Corruption Establishment to file a complaint.”
The chief justice ordered the Punjab government and Nawaz Sharif to submit a response to the JIT report within two weeks. The hearing was adjourned for a week
The three-judge bench had constituted the JIT during the hearing of the suo motu case on December 13 and appointed Director-General Anti-Corruption Punjab Dr Hussain Asghar as its new head on December 27.
