Casa Developer rejects NAB’s allegations against Shafiq

LAHORE: The family of Shahid Shafiq and Lahore Casa Developers (LCD) rejected the allegations of National Accountability Bureau (NAB), saying that he was innocent and was not involved in any corruption.

They were addressing a press conference at Lahore Press Club on Sunday.

NAB on Saturday arrested Bismillah Engineering Services Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Shahid Shafiq whose company was a subsidiary of Paragon City and was given a contract of 14 billion.

LCD CEO Brig (r) Tipu Karim, while rejecting the allegations levelled by NAB, said that the allegations were not true since Punjab government did not pay a single penny for the project. It is worth mentioning that LCD is a joint venture of Bismillah Engineering Services, SPARCO and China Group.

He said that the construction of Ashiyana Iqbal was not a contract but an agreement between Punjab Land Development Company (PLDC) and LCD which was concluded under Punjab Public-Private Partnership Act 2014.

“Under this agreement, LCD had to bear all the development cost while Punjab government was only had to provide the land for the project,” he said and added that the Punjab government failed to hand over the whole land which was about 3077 kanals.

Talking about the transparency of the agreement, Karim said that the contract was rewarded purely on merit basis where investors from across the world were invited to participate in biding.

“The allegation of minting billions of rupees through the project is simply foolish because, from the beginning of the project, the government never paid a single penny. LCD has spent over Rs 500 million on the master plan, designing and feasibility of the project,” he said.

“LCD’s intentions behind the project were pure because it was developing homes for the low incomes families of Pakistan and was eager to develop a good image,” he said, adding that they had contacted PLDC officials time and again over the delay in getting the land but they remained reluctant towards the issue.

“Over two dozen letters had been written to the PLDC and the matter was also brought to the knowledge of Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif but to date, the whole land has not been given to LCD,” Karim said.

Over the connections of former LDA Director General (DG) Ahad Cheema with the project, Karim said that NAB was just dragging Cheema into the matter as he had no link with the project.

Shafiq’s lawyer Ali Bukhari, while talking to media, alleged that NAB officials were victimising his client.

He said, “Shafique is being mentally and physically tortured by NAB officials. He was not allowed to sleep for the whole night and was drugged because he was senseless when he appeared in court.”

Meanwhile, according to media reports, no evidence of physical torture was found in Shahid Shafiq’s medical reports and his blood pressure and heart rate was normal. He was given some medicines after he complained of back pain.