LAHORE: An accountability court (AC) on Friday extended Ahad Cheema and Malik Shahid’s physical remand by another three days in the Ashiana-e-Iqbal Housing Scheme Scam case.
According to details, the remand of ex-Lahore Development Authority (LDA) director general Ahad Cheema and owner of Bismillah Engineering, Malik Shahid, was extended after NAB prosecutor told AC judge Munir Ahmed that there was a huge difference between the assets and means of both the accused, for which time was required for further investigation.
He also told the court that a poultry business in Ahad Cheema’s name had also been discovered.
The NAB prosecutor then demanded a 7-day physical remand, but the court did not accept NAB’s request and extended the remand for 3 days.
On April 27, an AC had extended Ahad Cheema’s physical remand for 15 days in the same case.
It is pertinent to note that the anti-graft watchdog has been probing into Ahad Cheema’s alleged misuse of authority as LDA’s director general. The bureaucrat is accused of awarding a contract of Ashiana-e-Iqbal Housing Scheme to Lahore Casa Developers – a joint venture of three companies, Bismillah Engineering Services Co, SPARCO Construction Company and China First Metallurgical Group Co Ltd – which was ineligible for the purpose.
It was claimed that Ahad also received illegal gratification in the form of 32-Kanal land from one of the shareholder companies of the said joint venture.