Lahore court summons NAB witnesses in Shehbaz Sharif’s Ashiyana housing scam for Jan 7

Lahore court summons NAB witnesses in Shehbaz Sharif’s Ashiyana housing scam for Jan 7

LAHORE (Dunya News) - An accountability court on Saturday ordered the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to produce its witnesses for cross-examination on the next hearing in the Ashiyana-i-Iqbal housing project case against Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

Accountability court judge Sajid Ali Awan adjourned the case till Jan 7, 2023 as the counsel for the prime minister could not attend Saturday s hearing due to personal engagements. The court ordered the defence lawyers to cross-examine the NAB witnesses in the case on the next hearing.

Former LDA DG  Ahad Cheema was present in court to attend the hearing while Anwar Shahzad represented PM Shehbaz who has been give exemption from appearance in court. Former principal secretary Fawad Hassan Fawad, who is also a suspect in the case, did not show up in court.

The Punjab government launched the Ashiyana housing projects in 2010 during the tenure of Mr Sharif as chief minister. The anti-graft watchdog claims that the PML-N president issued orders for cancelling a lawful contract given to Chaudhry Latif and Sons for the low-cost housing scheme, and subsequently awarded the contract to Lahore Casa Developers, an alleged proxy group of Paragon City Private Limited. The NAB claimed that the decision caused a loss of Rs193 million.

The former chief minister is also accused of directing the Punjab Land Development Company (PLDC) to give the Ashiyana-i-Iqbal project to the Lahore Development Authority (LDA), which later awarded it to the Lahore Casa Developers, causing a loss of Rs715 million.