NAB summons in Ashiana Housing probe based on ill-intentions: Shehbaz Sharif

• Says Punjab govt owns PLDC completely and is responsible for monitoring its performance
• Punjab CM says revenge should be avoided and accountability should not be based on politics

LAHORE: Punjab Chief Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif has said that the allegations levelled against him by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) were false and that the summon for him to appear before NAB was based on ill-intentions, yet he decided to appear before it as he strongly believes in the rule of law.

Addressing a press conference in Model Town after appearing before NAB in connection with an enquiry into alleged irregularities in the Ashiana Housing Scheme, the chief minister said that he could have sent a written reply to NAB but instead chose to physically appear before it. He made it clear that if the corruption of even a single penny is proved against him in Ashiana Scheme or in any other project, then he is ready to face the consequences.

He added that he will “go home” if corruption of even a single penny is proved against him.

Shehbaz alleged that persons who have looted billions and trillions of rupees of the nation were not questioned and he was being made a scapegoat on the basis of fudge data. “If it is a crime to serve the people and save billions of rupees of the poor nation, then I will repeat it thousands of time,” the chief minister said.

He said that the NAB team asked him about the order given to Punjab Land Development Company (PLDC) in violation of rules and regulations. “I replied that under Punjab government’s rules of business, the chief minister is authorised to summon the record of any matter/case pertaining to the Punjab government and can issue order/direction about it as well.”

Shehbaz said that PLDC is completely owned by the Punjab government and therefore, it is the responsibility of the Punjab government to monitor its work and performance.

The chief minister said that the Punjab government also provides financial resources to all the public sector companies from its kitty, and board of directors and CEOs of the companies are also appointed by the government. “Keeping this thing in view, the government has the complete authority to ask these companies about their performance,” he said.

He said that the PLDC had been set up to introduce low-income housing schemes so that the poor and the hapless strata could be given a house of their own.

The CM said that Chaudhry Latif and Sons Co was given infrastructure contract i.e., roads construction in Ashiana-e-Iqbal, and after coming to know about the delay, he directed to dispose the matter on merit, ensuring transparency and expediency. “We have had started the housing scheme for hapless and low-income families and contract was signed for constructing 1,700 housing units at the outset,” he said, and added that the rates of Rs1,700, Rs1,600 and 1,000 per square feet were offered but the government fixed the rate of Rs900 per square feet after negotiating with the lowest bidder.

“I asked the NAB officials what is your viewpoint about Rs1.5 billion saving made through this way. They had no reply for that,” he added.

The chief minister went on to say that a relative of secretary to Pervez Musharraf was given 80 per cent shares of precious natural resources of Chiniot without any tendering process in 2007 when Pervez Elahi and Pervez Musharraf were in the power. The assessment of initial income was around Rs450 billion, he added.

Shehbaz went on to say that the incumbent Chief Justice of Lahore High Court Justice Mansoor Ali Shah wrote while cancelling the agreement in the case-verdict that NAB should hold a detailed investigation into the matter. The NAB, he said, gave a clean chit to Arshad Waheed instead of holding an enquiry and cancelled the agreement, although the corruption enquiry cannot be stopped after the cancellation of the agreement.

“But NAB put this case in the cold storage,” CM Shehbaz recalled.  “I wrote a reminder-letter to NAB for enquiry in 2014 but all in vain,” he lamented.

Terming the case against him as politically motivated, Shehbaz requested NAB Chairman Javed Iqbal that revenge should be avoided and accountability should not be based on politics.

“What sort of accountability is this that corruption cases amounting to billions and trillions of rupees are awaiting attention and notice is issued on a matter which is based completely on falsehood and hypothesis?” he alleged.

The Punjab chief minister also alleged that corruption of billions of rupees was made in Islamabad Safe City Project. He also accused Babar Awan of corruption in Nandipur Power Project.

Shehbaz also asked if Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Co-chairman Asif Zardari was a king and said that Rs2.5 billion were released without fulfilling legal obligations in Chichuki Malian power project where not even a single megawatt of electricity is produced.

Replying to a question, the chief minister said that the looted money will be brought back from across the globe if an opportunity is given in 2018. “The system of accountability will be transformed and instead of a revengeful system of NAB, a transparent accountability system will be introduced where accountability will be done in a transparent and judicious manner and no politics will be carried out,” he added.

He also said that he accepts the rule of law from the core of his heart, which is why he appeared before the NAB. “If I am issued the notice again, I will reappear before NAB and I will also disclose the secret before the ‘court of the public’ at the appropriate time.”

The CM said that he requests the NAB chairman that he will cooperate for enquiry and will come whenever summoned, but warned that if the accountability was not transparent, then a ‘bloody revolution’ will dawn.

Ashiana Housing Scheme was an initiative of the Punjab government to provide economical residential facilities to the people with low-incomes. The provincial authorities had invested Rs2 billion while acquiring 672 Kanal Baba Noor Shah shrine.

The bureau summoned Punjab CM over reports of a deal between the companies of the Paragon Housing Scheme and the Punjab Land Development Company were received.

The bureau had alleged that over Rs1.2 billion loss was caused to the national treasure in violation of the rules and regulations.

On January 17, NAB Lahore issued a notification stating that NAB Lahore has been conducting an enquiry against management/officials of PLDC, Lahore Casa Developers, Lahore Development Authority (LDA) and others.

According to the NAB notice, an enquiry against officials of the PLDC and LDA revealed that “prima facie Shehbaz Sharif, being the Punjab chief minister, had ordered certain illegal acts in sheer violation of laid down procedures for the functioning of PLDC due to which the company bore a huge financial loss.”

“Shehbaz had ordered cancellation of the award of contract of Ashiana-e-Iqbal to a successful bidder, leading to an award of contracts to other builders, which resulted into a loss of Rs193 million approximately,” the notice reads.

He also directed PLDC to assign the project of Ashiana-e-Iqbal to LDA resulting into the award of contracts to M/s Lahore Casa Developers (JV), thus causing loss of Rs715 million approximately and ultimately failure of the project, according to the notice.

It says the chief minister had also directed PLDC to award consultancy services of Ashiana-e-Iqbal project for Rs192 million approximately, but its actual cost was Rs35 million.