LAHORE – The former Lahore Development Authority (LDA) Director General, Ahad Cheema and chief executive officer (CEO) of Bismillah Engineering Shahid Shafiq were sent to jail on a judicial remand, 90 days after the physical remand ended.
Cheema and Shafiq, the prime accused in the Ashiana Housing Scheme case, were presented by National Accountability Bureau before the court on Tuesday amid tight security.
During the hearing, Accountability court judge Najamul Hasan was informed by NAB officials that Cheema was arrested on February 21 after the anti-corruption body detected illegalities and corruption worth billions in a deal between Paragon Housing Society and Punjab Land Development Company to construct the Ashiana-e-Iqbal Housing Society.
According to the accountability watchdog, Punjab Land Development Company signed an agreement on January 20, 2015 and 16,000 poor citizens paid Rs61 million for the Ashiana Housing Scheme, however, the project was not close to completion even after three years, Geo News reported.
They further alleged that Cheema awarded a contract of Ashiana-e-Iqbal housing project worth Rs14 billion to Lahore Casa Developers — a joint-venture which was ineligible for the contract.
The deal inflicted a loss of over Rs64.5 million to the national exchequer, the NAB officials added.
After hearing the arguments of the NAB officials, the court sent Cheema and Shafiq to jail on judicial remands after their 90-day.
Ahad Cheema was arrested on February 21 and the NAB officials also seized cash and a luxury car during the course of investigations.
