LDA-City Housing: Court allows application to close inquiry against Cheema

LAHORE: An accountability court on Saturday allowed an application and approved closing of an inquiry into alleged corruption of LDA-City Housing against former director general Lahore Development Authority (LDA) Ahad Khan Cheema and nine others.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in its application had submitted that its regional board meeting had approved closure of the inquiry as all the private partners of the LDA-City Housing Scheme undertook to give plots to all the allottees.

It said the private partners had also provided the land for the project, which they were required to acquire under public-private-partnership. The LDA and the development partners were also accused of selling the plots more than they acquired.

A Joint Venture (JV) of five developers/companies under the public-private partnership program was supposed to acquire the land for the government. The JV comprises include Alpha Developers, Pak-Estate, Urban Developers, Maymar Housing and Paragon Developers.

The NAB had alleged that the private development partners in the housing project were involved in illegal sale of the LDA-City plots in connivance with then LDA Chief Ahad Cheema. It said the suspects caused a huge loss to the national exchequer. The Lahore High Court had granted bail to Cheema in this case on January 28, 2020.

The bureau had initially arrested Cheema in Ashiana-Iqbal Housing Scheme case on February 21, 2018, and caused his arrest in illegal assets and LDA-City case. Cheema is still behind the bars as he was denied bail in the references of Ashiana and illegal assets.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020