ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court of Pakistan’s bench hearing the Employees Old-age Benefit Institution (EOBI) scam case, on Monday, again issued notices to all the respondents in the case, DawnNews reported.
The court also sought from the Defence Housing Authority (DHA) details of finances pertaining to the additional expenses incurred from its frozen accounts in relation to the alleged scam.
A three-member bench of the apex court headed by Justice Tasdeeq Husain Jilani heard the case pertaining to the scam.
During the hearing, Director Legal Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) told the bench that there was no major progress in the case ever since the court ordered the investigative agency not to cause harassment to any of the owners of different companies and developers who sold their land to EOBI.
Meanwhile, counsel for DHA, Advocate Irfan Qadir, told the court that the housing authority needed additional funding for its day to day expenses.
Also, EOBI submitted a separate application for selling of 18 of its real estate properties.
The court again issued notices to the respondents and sought details of funds for DHA’s additional expenditure from its frozen accounts while adjourning the hearing to the first week of December.
Preliminary findings of a probe into the alleged scam by the Federal Investigation Agency suggest that the EOBI first purchased 321 kanals of land in the DHA Islamabad on Jan 19, 2012 for Rs15.473 billion and then, on March 15, 2013, signed a second deal with the DHA to buy 23 commercial and 12 residential plots, 162 three-bedroom and 29 five-bedroom villas in Sector F, Phase-I DHA Rawalpindi.
DHA Islamabad should not have sold the 321 kanals of land to EOBI because before the deal DHA had entered an agreement in June 2, 2008 with Messers Bahria Town and Messers Habib Rafiq to develop the same lands. The agreement also had a clause restricting further sale of the land to any party.
Referring to the second deal, the FIA had said the EOBI made the investment without prior approval of its Board of Trustees.
Subsequent to the finding the apex court had ordered the accounts of DHA to be frozen.