ISLAMABAD – The Supreme Court on Thursday sought a reply from three retired army generals over leasing Pakistan Railways land in Lahore for a meager sum, causing a loss of over Rs 25 billion to the government.
A three-member bench of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Ghulam Rabbani and Justice Khalilur Rehman Ramday also warned the generals that if they failed to reply, the allegations leveled against them would be considered to be correct. Former ISI chief Javed Ashraf Qazi, Lt Gen (r) Saeeduz Zafar and Maj Gen (r) Hamid Hassan Butt, who administered the Pakistan Railways in 2001, are in the dock. A petition was filed by former MNA Ishaq Khan Khakwani and Dr Mubashir Hassan, founder member of PPP, challenging a lease agreement for 1128 kanals (5,076000 square feet) of prime railway land in the heart of Lahore city, executed between the Government of Pakistan and a Malaysian consortium associated with two Pakistani Lahore-based companies Husnain Construction Company (Pvt) Ltd and Unicon Consulting Service (Pvt) Ltd, on July 26, 2001.
The court asked the railway chairman for the report by the Auditor General of Pakistan and to explain why the Railways had not implemented the Public Accounts Committee’s recommendations regarding the land. The court also asked the attorney general if proceedings had been initiated against the responsible or not and said that if cases had been registered against the accused, detailed record of them should be provided to the court at the next hearing.
The court asked the Establishment Division to tell it how many officials had been employed in the Railways in the period of the lease. It also sought complete record of that lease agreement from the executive committee of the Railways. The court also issued notice to the Malaysian consortium and adjourned the further hearing till January 31. The petitioner asked the court to order legal action against Lt Gen (r) Javed Ashraf Qazi, former Federal Minister for Railways, Lt Gen (r) Saeed-uz-Zafar, Ex Secretary/Chairman, Railways, Khurshid Alam Khan, Ex-Secretary/Chairman Railways, Maj Gen (r) Hamid Hassan Butt, Ex-General Manager and all the members of the Executive Committee of Railways including Secretary Railways, General Manager (Operations), General Manager (S&M) and General Manager (Finance), for “committing huge corruption” in the lease agreement.
The petitioner also said that the action adopted in the contract be declared to have been taken in violation of Articles 29, 30, 31 and 38 of the Constitution, thus the agreement being void from the outset. He asked the court to protect the interests of the members of the old Railways Golf Club and the premises leased to the consortium and its associates be restored to the club’s management.
