LAHORE - The Lahore High Court yesterday dismissed petition of Hammad Arshad, prime accused of Rs16 billion DHA city land scam, against his arrest and physical remand obtained by National Accountability Bureau.
The court held that the investigation of the case was in progress and the petition was not maintainable at this stage.
His counsels argued that Hammad Arshad’s arrest was in violation of a stay order as the LHC had restrained the NAB from taking any vindictive action against the petitioner.
The court was told that the petitioner used to appear before the bureau whenever was summoned. However, the bureau deceitfully arrested him and obtained his physical remand from the trial court by concealing facts, they argued, requesting the court to suspend the physical remand and order his release.
NAB prosecutor Khaliquz Zaman opposed the arguments of accused-petitioner, saying that the petitioner was arrested with the permission of the trial court.
Requesting the court to reject the petition, the prosecutor told the judge that Mr Arshad was involved in plundering hard-earned money of the citizens.
After hearing arguments from both the sides, Justice Tariq Abbasi dismissed the petition for being non maintainable.
Meanwhile an accountability court extended physical remand of Hammad Arshad for further twelve days.
Hammad Arshad’s company had secured a contract from DHA-EME in 2009 to acquire 25,000 kanals land for the establishment of DHA City. However, the company failed to acquire the agreed land and issued allotment letters and collected around Rs15.47 billion from public.
The suspect is accused of transferring the amount to his personal accounts and using the same for other business.
Privatization of PIA, Lesco: Meanwhile, the LHC issued notice to Punjab government on a petition challenging privatisation of Pakistan International Airline, Lahore Electricity Supply Company (Lesco) and other state institutions.
A lawyer petition Advocate Azhar Siddique had filed the petition and pointed out that the government instead of making the state institutions better was destroying them through its plans of privatisation.
The counsel contended that the government wanted to sell out profit giving institutions for the sake of minting money through kick-backs and commissions.
He said a number of government officials would lose their jobs and their performance would also be affected. The decision of the government was against the basic rights. He requested the court to stop the government from privatizing the state institutions including PIA, Lesco and others.
After hearing initial arguments, Justice Shahid Karim of the LHC issued notice to Privatization Board and sought reply. The court will resume hearing on March 3.