KHANEWAL, Dec 8: A former MPA and his brother have allegedly occupied nine acres of land meant for building a private hospital by an expatriate Pakistani doctor in Jahanian along with another 11 acres of his ancestral land, while his father has appealed to higher authorities to provide them justice.

The district administration has launched an inquiry after an additional secretary at the CM’s Secretariat ordered so.

A revenue deputy district officer (DDO) posted at Jahanian is investigating the matter, and he is likely to submit his report to the district coordination officer (DCO) soon.

Former MPA Chaudhry Naveed Hamid Jahanian has denied the allegation, and said the land in question was their hereditary property and his brother had a dispute with Amanullah and his sons regarding its partition and a case was pending with a local revenue officer.

Amanullah Jahanian, who is currently residing in Karachi, complained to the caretaker prime minister and the Punjab chief minister that about 14 years ago, he had sent his son, Dr Salik Jahanian, to the United States for higher studies with a promise that he would return to Pakistan and build a hospital in Jahanian locality. To fulfil his dream, Amanullah said, his son worked very hard and earned some money to build the hospital.

He said after sheer hard work, his son, who is director of the Cardiothoacic Surgery Division in College of Medicine, University of Kentucky, USA, purchased a piece of land measuring nine acres adjacent to their 29-kanal ancestral land bearing Khasra Nos 55/6-25, 65/2-5, 64/11-8, Khewat Nos 60/59 and 61/60 and Khatoni Nos 289-291 and 292-298 in Jahanian.

Besides these nine acres, Amanullah said, another piece of land measuring 11 acres was also given to Dr Salik as a share from his ancestral property on which a house had already been constructed.

Amanullah alleged that Naveed Hamid Jahanian, who happens to be his cousin, had annexed 20 kanals to his adjacent land for construction of his factory and has constructed a boundary wall around their land after occupying it.

According to Amanullah, Naveed also claims himself as a close associate of Moonis Elahi, a son of former chief minister Pervaiz Elahi, and presses local administration to protect his unlawful activities, including land grabbing.

Amanullah said Naveed Jahanian had criminal record in the USA, and the Fullertin Police Department had issued his active arrest warrants No W-93123674.

Talking to Dawn, Amanullah said Naveed was released on bail in the said case, but later he came back to Pakistan and changed his identity card by adding the word ‘Muhammad’ to his name. In his absence, he said, Naveed’s case was processed for trial and he was sentenced owing to which his perpetual arrest warrants were issued.

When contacted, Naveed Jahanian told Dawn that Amanullah was a fraud and he had committed a fraud worth Rs50 million to Rs60 million with a government institution.

He said Amanullah had a land partition dispute with his brother, and a case was pending with a local revenue court. He said the property was a joint holding and around 25 people owned it.

“No, we did not occupy Amanullah’s land and whatever we did was in accordance with his consent.” He said Amanullah had also filed an application against his brother with the Jahania Revenue DDO for division of their joint holding.

DCO Rao Shakeel told Dawn that he had ordered an inquiry and the Jahanian Revenue DDO was investigating the complaint. “The inquiry officer will soon compile his report and forward it to me.” The DCO assured that the case would be decided on merit.

Nawaz Malik, monitoring additional secretary at the CM’s Secretariat, through a letter, had directed the DCO to examine the case and report within a fortnight.