A Lahore accountability court acquitted PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif and others in the Ashiana-i-Iqbal Housing Scheme reference on Saturday.

It also acquitted other co-accused, including caretaker Privatisation Minister Fawad Hasan Fawad, former director general of the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) Ahad Khan Cheema, Imtiaz Haider, Bilal Kidwai, Shahid Mehmood, Munir Zia, Shahid Shafiq, Ali Sajjad Bhatta and Mohammad Sadiq.

The Punjab government’s controversial Ashiana housing projects were launched in 2010. In 2018, the National Accountability Bureau accused Shehbaz of ordering the cancellation of a contract given to successful bidder Chaudhry Latif and Sons for the low-cost housing scheme, which led to the subsequent award of the contract to Lahore Casa Developers, a proxy group of Paragon City Private Limited, resulting in a loss of Rs193 million.

He was also accused of directing the Punjab Land Development Company (PLDC) to assign the Ashiana-i-Iqbal project to the LDA, which awarded the contract to Lahore Casa Developers, causing a loss of Rs715m and the ultimate failure of the project.

NAB had also accused the former Punjab chief minister of directing the PLDC to award the consultancy services contract for the Ashiana-i-Iqbal project to Engineering Consultancy Services Punjab for Rs192m, while the actual cost was supposed to be Rs35m as quoted by Nespak, a renowned engineering consultancy.

Shehbaz, Fawad, Cheema and several others were arrested later in 2018. The PML-N president and others were indicted in the case in February 2019.

In May this year, the NAB had cleared the PML-N president of any wrongdoing in the scandal. Subsequently, in Oct, an accountability court had acquitted Kamran Kiyani — brother of former army chief Ashfaq Parvez Kiyani — and Nadeem Zia of Paragon City in the reference.

Earlier this month, an accountability court had reserved its verdict on the acquittal applications of Shehbaz, Cheema and others accused.

Today, the accountability court took up the acquittal pleas of the former prime minister and others and accepted them.

Following the acquittal, former information minister Marriyum Aurangzeb congratulated the party leadership and workers on the acquittal of Shehbaz in the “false case for the sake of political vendetta”.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), she said the “public was now finding out how false cases were made to arrest Shehbaz Sharif”. “The country’s and the public’s time and money were wasted by making false cases,” she added.

“False cases were made by blackmailing the NAB chairman. After making up false cases, slanders and accusations were made,” Aurangzeb claimed.

Cheema, who is currently serving as the special assistant to caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar, thanked God for honouring him through this “test”.

Speaking to the media outside the accountability court, he said the “requirements of justice” had not been fulfilled and that everyone witnessed when “injustice” was done.

The former LDA director general added that the court asked him to be a sworn witness but his counsel Amjad Pervaiz “helped a lot”.

Cheema also recalled that he had resigned from his role in the civil services due to the “public’s attitude”, adding that he would remain upset at people’s reactions during the past four to five years.