LAHORE: Finalising inquiry proceedings under the Punjab Employees Efficiency, Discipline and Accountability (Peeda) Act 2006, the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) has dismissed from service its director housing (BPS-19), who retired last week, and took action against some other officers in the scam of plots worth Rs875m.

“Since the inquiry proceedings against the officers continued for around five months, the inquiry officer (additional director general-urban planning) found director (housing-VII) guilty of being directly involved in the scam,” an official source, privy to the findings of the inquiry, said while talking to Dawn on Thursday.

“The service of this officer (Moazzam Rashid), who retired from service last week, would be dismissed under the Peeda Act,” the official, who wished not to be named, said. To a question, he added that under the Peeda Act, action could be taken against the officers within one year of their retirement; therefore, the officer (even though he is retired now) would be considered as dismissed from service, subject to the issuance of final notification/termination letter from the LDA director general, in line with the recommendations of the inquiry report under Peeda Act, he maintained.

The inquiry, according to the official, has also recommended forfeiting service of former deputy director (Law) Sibtain Qureshi and Deputy Director (Law) Muhammad Irfan. Initiation of a regular inquiry under the Peeda Act has also been recommended against Director (Law) Abdul Razaq for his involvement in the scam.

Action taken against other officers under PEEDA Act

“The probe report recommended not extending the annual contract of LDA senior legal adviser Waseem Badar,” the official maintained.

The officers had executed an agreement with private people for giving them ‘specific’ plots against the land they had surrendered to the LDA in Johar Town under the exemption category. Before the inquiry under Peeda, three of the aforementioned officers were also declared guilty in a fact-finding probe.

The LDA DG initiated disciplinary proceedings against the officers (Moazzam Rasheed, Sibtain Raza Qureshi, Muhammad Irfan, Muhammad Babar Ikram and Rai Shah Jahan), estate officer of Housing-VII on the charges of inefficiency/negligence.

According to another official source, the agreement was made between private parties and director housing on behalf of the LDA, pledging to give plots worth Rs875m to private persons’ states. He revealed that the joint evaluation report was not only manoeuvred by the director but the selection of seven specific plots (bearing No 18-24 Block G-I Johar Town, Canal Road) for the purpose of joint evaluation was also arbitrary and filled with malafide as the area of the owners was dispersed over 13 khasra numbers.

As per the superimposed map of the scheme, more than 50 plots are located on those 13 khasra numbers. So the officer had no power to pinpoint seven plots. This also ran against the exemption policy of Johar Town Scheme which stipulated exemption of 30pc area irrespective of its location. To achieve the alleged vested interests, the Supreme Court order, dated 31.03.2021, was misinterpreted and used as a pretext to evaluate market rate of the aforementioned seven plots while this order was about allocation of two plots only.

“After knowing about the fraud allegedly committed by the officers through misrepresentation from the apex, the LDA administration immediately filed a petition in the court in a bid to explain the actual situation under section 12 (2),” the official said, adding that the deputy director Muhammad Babar Ikram was censured whereas Rai Shah Jahan, estate officer of LDA Housing-VII had been exonerated from the charges.

On the other hand, the officers who have been given major punishments have decided to challenge the penalties imposed on them.

“I will definitely challenge this in the court of law,” said one of the accused officers while talking to this reporter.

LDA DG Tahir Farooq was not available for comments.

Published in Dawn, March 21st, 2025