Reference filed in illegal award Railway land : NAB
ISLAMABAD, (MILLAT ONLINE):National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has filed a reference against officers/officials in Accountability
Court Islamabad for their alleged involvement in illegal award of lease
of Railway Golf Club, Lahore.
The reference has been filed against accused former Secretary/Chairman Railways/former Federal Minister
for Communication and Railways, Lt Gen (Retd) Javed Ashraf Qazi, former Secretary/Chairman Railways Board,
Lt Gen (Retd) Saeed-uz-Zafar, former General Manager (GM) (M&S)
Pakistan Railways, Maj Gen (Retd) Hamid Hassan Butt, former GM
(Operations) Pakistan Railways, Iqbal Samad Khan, former Member
Finance, Pakistan Railways, Khurshid Ahmed Khan, Director Directorate
of Property & Land Pakistan Railways, Brig (Retd) Akhtar Ali Baig,
former Divisional Superintendent, Pakistan Railways, Abdul Ghaffar
and sponsors of Royal Palm Golf Club, Ramzan Sheikh and Pervaiz
Qureshi, and five other officers and officials.
As per details issued here on Monday, in year 2001, Pakistan
Railways offered lease of its Golf Club at Canal Bank Lahore for 33
years for which a number of firms submitted bids including MAX Corps
Pvt Ltd.
During bidding process, the lease period was illegally enhanced from
33 years to 49 years.
Moreover, the land offered also increased illegally from
103 Acers to 140 Acers by demolishing Railway officer colony.
Hence, precious piece of land was leased out illegally in a non-transparent
manner in order to grant illegal benefits to lease holder that is
Main Land Hasnain Limited.
It has been established during investigation that the above
mentioned accused persons have committed offense of corruption and
corrupt practices through misuse of authority by illegal award
of 49 years lease of Railway Golf Club Lahore measuring 140 acres in
2001 to M/s Mainland Hasnain Pakistan Limited (MHPL) for commercial
purposes, causing a loss of Rs. 2.2 billion (approx) to national
exchequer.