Shahbaz Sharif gets relief in Ashiyana scam

ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Tuesday withdrew its petition in the Supreme Court that challenged the bail to Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif in the Ashiana Iqbal Housing Scheme scam.

The senior counsel Naeem Bokhari, representing the NAB chairman, pleaded before the court that he wished not to press the three appeals against the Feb 14.

Lahore High Court order to release Shahbaz Sharif on bail in the Ashiyana housing scheme scam and his April 10 bail in the Ramzan Sugar Mills case.

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A three-judge SC bench, headed by Chief Justice Asif Saeed Khosa, disposed of the matter when the petitioner withdrew the appeals,

The counsel brought to the attention of the apex court that observations made in the high court’s order had the tendency of prejudicing the trial before an accountability court.

The apex court said the observations made in bail pleas were always tentative in nature and, therefore, could not prejudice the investigating agencies or trial court.

During the hearing, the apex court was unable to understand how the former chief minister was guilty of misusing his authority or committing or indulging in corruption.

When he himself sent the matter to a committee and later to the Punjab Anti-Corruption Establishment when the allegations of procedural irregularities came to his notice.

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In the entire case, the former chief minister appeared to be a good guy, the chief justice observed.

Besides, he said, the loss of Rs3.34 billion to the Punjab government in view of cost escalation of the project was all anticipated.

The court was unable to grasp what crime the former chief minister had committed when he asked for proposals for public-private partnership,

Especially when such proposals were subsequently placed before the Board of Directors of the Punjab Land Development Company (PLDC), as the entire project could not take off with the walking away of the successful bidder.

The Ashiyana housing scheme was initiated with a land measuring 3,100 kanals allocated to the PLDC by the Punjab government.

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The land was located adjacent to that of M/s Paragon Housing Private Limited. In the first bidding process, the lowest bidder was M/s Chaudhry A. Latif and Sons which was awarded the contract for infrastructure development of the Ashiyana housing scheme, Lahore, on Jan 24, 2013.

The chief justice observed the chief minister himself had formed the inquiry committee.

Naeem Bukhari apprised the court that Fawad Hassan Fawad was appointed implementation secretary in the matter.

Later, the court disposed of the petition over withdrawal by NAB.