Former PM Shehbaz Sharif, others acquitted in Ashiana housing corruption case

Former Prime Minister of Pakistan Shehbaz Sharif and two members of the incumbent federal caretaker cabinet were acquitted in a mega housing corruption scam on Saturday. Accountability Court Lahore acquitted Shehbaz, federal cabinet members Fawad Hassan Fawad and Ahad Khan Cheema and others in the mega Ashiana-i-Iqbal Housing Scheme corruption case on the report of the national anti-graft body. The Ashiana case first emerged in January 2018 when NAB accused Sharif, the then-opposition leader, of misusing his authority to illegally issue orders for cancellation of the contract with regard to the housing project during his term as Punjab’s CM in 2014, ARY News reported. In March 2014, Shehbaz Sharif visited the Ashiana-e-Iqbal project site and stopped its bidding process, according to the case. National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Prosecutor Waris Ali Janjua submitted a report on the interpretation of a recent order by the Supreme Court wherein the trial courts had been restrained from announcing final orders till a decision on appeals against a judgment on the amendments in the law. The stay order of the apex court does not apply to acquittal applications in hand as the trial court heard them on merits and the defunct amendments in the law had nothing to do with the proceedings, he told the court. After going through the NAB’s report, the judge allowed the applications of the accused persons and acquitted them in the reference. The judge observed: There is no probability of conviction in the case. Since the ouster of former premier Imran Khan in April 2022, the Sharif brothers Nawaz Sharif and Shehbaz Sharif and other members of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party have been getting relief from courts in one corruption case or another. The Punjab Land Development Company (PLDC) was looking after the project. However, Shehbaz Sharif after visiting the site took the decision to assign the project to the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) which resulted in a contract being given to the Lahore Casa Developers (JV), causing the loss of Pakistani Rupees (PKR) 715 million loss to the exchequer, according to the case. The NAB arrested Shehbaz Sharif in the case on October 5, 2018. He was arrested from his Lahore office, where he had appeared after being summoned for questioning in connection with an investigation into the Saaf Pani Company scam, ARY News reported. According to NAB, the contract for the housing scheme was won by a construction company titled Chaudhry Latif and Sons. However, “Shehbaz Sharif and his aides awarded the Rs 14 billion contract to Lahore Casa Developers - a proxy group of Paragon City (Pvt) Limited, which is said to be owned by then Railways Minister Saad Rafique”. Later that year, senior bureaucrat Fawad Hasan Fawad, former director general of the Lahore Development Authority Ahad Khan Cheema and several others were also arrested. With inputs from agencies.