The FIR was registered under various sections of Pakistan Penal Code and Prevention of Corruption Act. The investigation agency also nominated Abdul Hafeez Sheikh, chief executive officer (CEO) of M/S BNP (Pvt) Limited, the builder of Grand Hyatt, as an accused. The investigation agency also nominated then Additional Legal Advisor Rai Nawaz Kharal, former Director Estate Habibur Rehman Gillani and former Director Project Management Dr Faisal Awan as accused persons. The FIR alleged that instead of constructing a 5-star hotel, the builder constructed luxury apartments and sold them to different buyers illegally and extracted billions of rupees from the public through cheating and fraud.
However, the investigation agency is not in a position to arrest Lashari, Qureshi, Shaukat Mohammad and Brigadier Nusrat (retd) as they have recently obtained a restraining order from the Islamabad High Court (IHC). The CEO of M/S BNP Sheikh is also enjoying the similar protection against the arrest. The former CDA officers including Additional Legal Advisor Rai Nawaz Kharal, ex-Member Engineering Kakakhel and ex-directors Awan and Gillani have not obtained any restraining order and the FIA may take them in its custody, sources in the FIA said.
The FIR further said that the "role of other members of consortium BNP Group along with other CDA officers would be determined during the investigation." After preliminary hearing of the petition on Thursday last, an IHC division bench comprising Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb provided temporary relief to the ex-CDA bosses as the bench restrained the investigation agencies to arrest them. The bench, however, allowed the investigators to proceed in the case in accordance with law.
Citing a news report published on April 20, 2017, the petition filed through Advocate Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri said they learnt that the court has stopped the investigation agency from taking coercive action against the builders but have allowed FIA to investigate and arrest the high ranking officials of the CDA who dealt the auctioning of plot to M/S BNP, the builders of Grand Hyatt.
The petition further said that "the petitioners have come to know through some reliable sources that due to some ulterior motives and in order to settle some personal vendetta, the FIA officials/NAB authorities are trying to arrest the petitioners without due course of law." According to the petition, the petitioners have served the CDA with effect from 2004 to 2010. It claimed that petitioners were the law-abiding officers and served in various capacities from time to time. All the petitioners having unblemished career and bear good reputation and have retired from service for last few years.
The petition further claimed that CDA auctioned a plot for Grand Hyatt Hotel in 2004 after completing all the legal and codal formalities. It, however, went on to state that after the tenure of petitioners, some irregularities were allegedly committed by the allottees (M/S BNP) as well as some issues developed between the CDA and allottees, regarding which the CDA issued various notices and subsequently lease of the abovementioned plot was cancelled in the year 2016.
The petition also cited the judgment passed by IHC Justice Athar Minallah in which the learned judge upheld the order of the CDA board regarding cancellation of lease to M/S BNP. In his judgment passed in the BNP case, Justice Minallah noted, the "Authority placed on record copies of the internal official notes relating to the plot. It is a reflection of how the officials have been bending over backwards by extending undue benefits to the petitioner/company in complete disregard to the mandatory regulations, thus causing loss to the exchequer on the one hand and enabling the petitioner/company to defraud and deceive members of the general public on the other."
The judgment said the case had brought to surface the most conspicuous example of undermining the rule of law by one of the most important regulatory authorities established under the 1960 Ordinance. The ex-chairman CDA and former members, however, stated in the petition that they "are ready to face any kind of inquiry/investigation by the law enforcing/investigation agencies but the petitioners have the apprehensions that they will be harassed as well as arrested."
Copyright Business Recorder, 2017