Ashiana Housing scam: Ahad Cheema's judicial remand extended till July-4

Dunya News

The court resumed hearing in Lahore today.

LAHORE (Dunya News) – An accountability court on Tuesday extended judicial remand of former Director General (DG) Lahore Development Authority (LDA) Ahad Cheema and Shahid Shafique till July-4.

As per details garnered, the court resumed hearing of Ashiana Housing Scheme case here in Lahore today. Prime accused Cheema and Bismillah Construction’s chief executive Shahid Shafiq appeared before the court amid tight security.

National Accountability Court (NAB)—during hearing—adopted the stance Punjab Land Development Company inked the agreement on Jan-20, 2015 with Paragon Housing Society to construct the Ashiana-e-Iqbal Housing Society whereas as much as 16000 underprivileged citizens submitted money worth Rs610 mln. Legal counsel of anti-graft watchdog further went on to say that project had not been completed yet.

Bureau’s lawyer further apprised the court that Ahad Cheema—under capacity of LDA DG—awarded contract worth Rs14 bln to Casa Company [a joint venture of Bismillah Engineering Services, Sparco and China Group].

NAB officials held that it is illegal to award contract over Rs150 mln and that the provincial exchequer suffered loss worth Rs640.50 mln owing to incompetency of the companies.

Accountability Court—after hearing the arguments—extended judicial remands of Cheema and Shafiq till July-4.