LAHORE: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Thursday told the Lahore High Court (LHC) that former Lahore Development Authority (LDA) chairman Ahad Cheema was arrested in accordance with the law and after approval from relevant authorities.
The NAB prosecutor told the LHC in the watchdog’s response during the hearing.
“Ahad Cheema was arrested in accordance with the law and authorities concerned had given their approval,” the NAB prosecutor remarked.
Ahad Cheema was arrested by NAB in the Ashiana Housing Scheme scam.
The NAB has alleged that Cheema abused his power as LDA chairman and awarded the contract of Ashiana Housing Scheme to Lahore Casa Developers (LCD) and Bismillah Engineering, which were not eligible for the project.
Meanwhile, Cheema has rejected all allegations against him stating that he awarded the project according to rules and regulations of Punjab government.
“NAB has no evidence against me,” Cheema had claimed.
Meanwhile, NAB has also arrested the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Bismillah Engineering, Shahid Siddique, who is under one-day physical remand.
The family of Shahid Siddique, during a press conference, rejected the allegations of NAB stating that he was not involved in any corruption. LCD CEO Brig (r) Tipu Karim also rejected the allegations saying that Punjab government did not pay a single penny for the project.
“The Ashiana Scheme was not a contract rather an agreement between Punjab Land Development Company (PLDC) and LCD which was signed under Punjab Public-Private Partnership Act 2014,” Karim claimed.
On February 26, NAB allowed Saima Ahad, wife of Ahad Cheema, to meet him on ‘humanitarian grounds.’
After the meeting, however, Saima Ahad criticized NAB stating that allegations against her husband are baseless, malicious, fabricated and uncalled for.
“My husband had eight kanals of land in his name against NAB’s allegations of 32 kanals,” she said. “He purchased this land after selling his ancestral land in Lahore and declared this land in his assets statements accordingly,” she added.
