LAHORE: The National Accountability Bureau’s investigation against ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif for illegally allotting plots of the Lahore Development Authority has apparently hit snags as none of the beneficiaries is ‘traceable’.

The NAB, in September last, had re-launched investigation into the allotment of plots to 13 people in violation of rules and the laid-down procedure during the tenure of Nawaz Sharif as chief minister in late 1980s.

The NAB had summoned all beneficiaries through Lahore police “but the bureau was informed by the police that they failed to trace any of the beneficiaries,” a source in police told Dawn on Wednesday. He said according to the police despite efforts the beneficiaries remained untraceable. “This is good news for Mr Sharif as NAB is not insisting the Punjab police to make ‘serious efforts’ to find out the beneficiaries. The investigation may be closed,” he said. Lahore police chief Amin Wains was not available for a comment.

The inquiry into illegal allotment of plots had been pending with NAB for over a decade. The investigation into the case was initiated in 2000 after Gen Musharraf toppled Mr Sharif’s government (in Oct 1999) but later it was not pursued. As NAB filed three corruption references against Nawaz Sharif and his children – Hassan, Hussain and Maryam – and son-in-law Muhammad Safdar, the bureau found the ‘lost’ file of this (illegal plots) inquiry against Nawaz.

Meanwhile, complying with the NAB notice, Mr Sharif’s younger brother Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif submitted the record of ‘illegal’ construction of a road leading to their (Sharifs) residence in Jati Umra, Raiwind.

“Shahbaz Sharif has submitted the record of construction of a two-way road between Raiwind and the Sharif family residence in the late 1990s to the NAB Lahore,” a source said, adding CM Sharif could also be summoned after examining the record.

The Sharif brothers are accused of causing a loss of about Rs125 million to the national exchequer by illegally constructing the road to their Jati Umra residence. The road was constructed ‘exclusively’ to facilitate the Sharifs as the area mostly had agricultural land at that time. The NAB executive board had already approved filing a reference against Nawaz, Shahbaz and others involved in this (road project) case.

In another case - Lahore’s Ashiana-i-Iqbal scam - in which Shahbaz Sharif was grilled (by NAB) the bureau is still awiting a reply from him to its detailed questionnaire.

Shahbaz Sharif is accused of canceling award of this project’s contract to successful bidders M/S Ch Latif and Sons and instead obliged M/S Lahore Casa Developers (JV) - a proxy group of M/S Paragon City (Pvt) Limited (which was developed by Railways Minister Saad Rafique) - thus causing a loss of millions of rupees to the exchequer. He also allegedly directed the Punjab Land Development Company (PLDC) to assign this project to LDA resulting in award of contract to M/s Lahore Casa Developers (JV), thus causing a loss of Rs715 million and ultimately failure of the project. NAB said Shahbaz Sharif also directed the PLDC to award consultancy services of this project to M/s Engineering Consultancy Services Punjab for Rs192 million whereas the actual cost was Rs35 million as quoted by Nespak.

Spokesman for the Shahbaz Sharif administration Malik Muhammad Ahmad did not respond to Dawn’s questions.

Published in Dawn, February 8th, 2018