MULTAN: The National Accountability Bureau has asked the cooperatives societies deputy registrar to provide details of properties of former MPA Ahmed Hassan Dehar.

In his letter to the deputy registrar written on Jan 30, Additional Director (Staff) Ahmad Mumtaz Bajwa has asked the officer concerned to provide details of immovable properties located in all schemes registered with the department in the names or transferred from the names of 23 individuals, including Mr Dehar and his other family members.

In January, the NAB chairman ordered the inquiry against Mr Dehar and others after an application was received to the bureau regarding the alleged embezzlement of millions of rupees in the national exchequer, manipulation in state record, construction of road and colony on his private land.

The application stated that Mr Dehar allegedly misused his authority [as MPA] and funds for the development schemes of the constituency PP-200.

Writes letter to cooperatives deputy registrar; ex-legislator ‘misused’ funds meant for PP-200

The applicant alleged that a number of development projects of roads, electricity, gas, sewerage were used by Mr Dehar to convert his agriculture tracts into commercial land despite the fact that the funds were meant for the constituency.

According to sources, the MPA is still showing his property as agricultural instead of commercial in revenue record while he established residential schemes on the land which was meant for educational and health purpose in MDA’s master plan (2008-28) for the city allegedly in connivance with the officials of Multan Development Authority.

They say the MDA officials had taken the stance that when the master plan was being prepared it was decided that in case of the approval of the schemes whose applications had been received earlier, the area would be excluded from special zone. However, the sources allege, as many as three schemes had been okayed after the approval of the master plan despite the fact that they [MDA] did not have any documentary proof of the [received] applications.

The sources say the master plan was approved in 2012 but the MDA started giving approval to these schemes after 2014 while the entire process to get approval for a scheme doesn’t require more than two months.

They say the MDA officials had no authority to exclude the area from the master plan without the nod of the chief minister and they also did not have such approval.

They say the development work was done on housing schemes with the alleged connivance of MDA official in violation of the rules but after the matter was highlighted in the media, the MDA cancelled the preliminary permission of one of the housing schemes of Mr Dehar ‘Blessing City’ against which Mr Dehar had submitted a written appeal to the housing, urban development and public health engineering secretary. The appeal was rejected by the authority concerned on Aug 29, 2017 while stating that as per the section 47 of Punjab Housing Schemes and Land Sub-Division Rules 2010, ‘an aggrieved person may within 30 days of cause of action arising under these rules file an appeal before the appellant authority’.

“Your request has been time-barred, therefore, it cannot be proceeded further,” the letter concluded.

Mr Dehar, who is now a leader of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, was an MPA of Pakistan Peoples Party (Parliamentarians) from 2008 to 2013 and also remained member of tourism and resort development committee of Punjab Assembly.

Published in Dawn, February 15th, 2018