The Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) Punjab is all set to move against two Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) members of the National Assembly for their alleged role in grabbing pieces of state land, according to a news report.
ACE Punjab Director General Gohar Nafees told a local media outfit that PML-N MNA from Sahiwal Chaudhry Muhammad Ashraf and Mian Javed Latif from Sheikhupura will face legal action for alleged grabbing of the state land.
He said the ACE had decided to register a case against Chaudhry Ashraf for illegally grabbing 200 kanals of state land in Arifwala while investigation was underway to determine the role of Javed Latif in a land grab case and subsequently action would be taken against him.
On Friday, the ACE team launched an operation in Arifwala and recovered 217 kanals and three marlas of government land from Chaudhry Ashraf. In another raid, it recovered precious eight kanals and three marlas land from Javed Latif and others.
“Javed Latif had constructed New Mian Flour Mills on illegally occupied state land,” the ACE chief told the media outfit. The officials with the help of the district administration demolished the boundary wall of the mills.
According to an unnamed official, Javed Latif ‘smartly’ occupied the state land in order to save his skin from any legal action.
“MNA Latif used to grab the state land through his frontmen in connivance with the revenue officials from whom he bought it to become a bona fide purchaser,” he said. The ACE was exploring the legal options to lay hand on him but he (Latif) was confident that he would get away in this case, he said.
On Aug 1, on the complaint of the Punjab Cooperative Board for Liquidation, the ACE recovered the state land in Sheikhupura from Javed Latif who has set up Mian Latif Paper and Board Mills. The mills had been set up on 30 kanals and 15 marlas of state land. The ACE had demolished the boundary walls of the paper mills and handed it over to the officers of the Punjab Cooperation Board for Liquidation.
