Ex-DG LDA Cheema has another 49 Kanals of land to his name: sources

By
Raees Ansari
|

Ahad Cheema, the former director-general of the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) who was blacklisted from obtaining a passport by the Interior Ministry earlier today, owns an addition 49 Kanals of land, emails recovered from his laptop revealed.

An initial analysis of some emails exchanged between Cheema, the primary accused in the Ashiana housing scheme case, and his accomplices, especially Nadeem Zia, showed proof of the former's ownership of the 49-Kanal land as well as a transfer of Rs 160 million from a private housing society's bank account, sources at the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) noted.

According to the sources, the private housing society was transferred to a fake identity — a certain 'Ali Murad'.

As per the sources, the aforementioned land is located in Mouza Tedha Cantt, near a private housing society, in Lahore, with the emails stating that the accused were the Al-Haram Garden Housing Society's joint owners.

The LDA was to develop the private housing society, the sources added citing the suspects' ploy, which then added that the LDA Association then took it over.

Thereafter, with the help of a private contractor, a sum worth approximately Rs 50 million was spent on the private housing society. The accused also developed hundreds of five-Marla-plots with the intent to sell them.

Apart from Cheema, others, including Zia and Israr Saeed, remained involved in the priorly agreed-upon scheme, sources said.

Further, the sources explained that the NAB had obtained proofs of Cheema's 33-percent stake in the private housing society that could, at present, be worth upwards of Rs 400 million, based on present-day valuation methods.

More revelations are expected once the forensic report of Cheema's laptop is released.