ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has launched an investigation into a Rs6 billion land scam in the National Police Foundation’s (NPF) housing scheme in Islamabad on the directive of Supreme Court and barred it from selling and purchasing plots.
NAB has summoned 45 former IGs and 13 former DIGs who are reported to have obtained three to seven plots in sector E-II of the housing scheme.
“We have recently written a letter to the management of the foundation and asked it to submit the record of sale and purchase of plots,” a NAB official told Dawn.
Retired senior officials of police have been asked to appear before investigators to record their statements about plots allotted to them.
In the light of the court’s orders, he said, the NAB was investigating how the NPF purchased land for the housing scheme and the role of Anjum Aqeel Khan, a local politician belonging to the PML-N, in it.
“During the investigation, we have come to know that some senior officials have been allotted three to seven plots,” the official said.
At present, the price of a plot measuring one kanal in the scheme’s E-11 sector is said to be over Rs35 million.
NAB, he said, would also investigate why the foundation was formed, what was its manifesto and how it had established housing schemes in the federal capital.
It has been learnt that the foundation was established in March 1975 as a trust to provide assistance to police personnel and their families in the form of medical, education and one-time grants, artificial limbs, scholarships, dowry and vocational training, but not for establishing housing schemes.
On Oct 31, the court ordered NAB to proceed against former MNA Anjum Aqeel Khan and others involved in the scam.
Former managing director of the foundation Iftikhar Ahmed Khan, additional directors Abdul Hannan and Khuda Bakhsh and director (land) Laeeq Ahmed Khan are facing an inquiry for allegedly paying millions to Aqeel without getting any land, thus, causing huge losses to the NPF.
The court order described three agreements between the NPF and Aqeel for procurement of land signed on Nov 3, 1997, Aug 28, 2001, and April 12, 2003, as examples of fraud since none of them mentioned a date for finalisation of the deals.
The apex court cancelled the allotment of plots allotted illegally or in multiple numbers to one person, including police officials, NPF employees, government officials, civilians, businessmen and their dependants.
However, the court provided them with an opportunity to retain the plots by paying the price according to their present market value in two months.
It directed Aqeel to fulfil his outstanding liability of 126 kanals of land as undertaken by him through the May 27, 2011 agreement. Otherwise he would have to pay the present market price of 88 plots in accordance with a formula set by the Capital Development Authority. The NAB has to submit a progress report on the case to the court by Jan 29, 2014.