LAHORE: PML-N President and Opposition Leader in National Assembly Shahbaz Sharif on Friday skipped the hearing of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in the Lahore Waste Management Company (LWMC) scam for the second consecutive time.

According to Shahbaz Sharif’s spokesperson Attaullah Tarar, Mr Sharif could not appear before the NAB as he was not well. “Doctors have advised him complete bed rest,” he said and added that a reply to the queries in this respect had been submitted to the NAB.

Last month, Mr Sharif had skipped the NAB’s hearing in this scam citing his poor health.

Not satisfied by his response, the NAB has decided to send a team of combined investigation to his house in Lahore to record his statement.

Shahbaz Sharif has been on bail in the Ashiana Housing and Ramzan Sugar Mills cases. He is also facing income beyond means and money laundering investigation by NAB.

Meanwhile, Punjab former minister and PML-N leader Rana Mashhood appeared before the NAB and recorded his statement in the Punjab Youth Festival scam.

The bureau has already in custody six officials allegedly involved in this scandal. They included Sports Board Director General Usman Anwar, deputy directors Tariq Maqsood and Walait Shah, Guinness Book of World Record’s fake representative Syed Wasim, and contractors Muhammad Imran and Ehsanul Haq.

Rana Mashood said that the bureau had earlier given him a clean chit in this investigation as he had done nothing wrong and submitted all relevant record and replied to the bureau’s queries in this regard.

On the request of NAB, the interior ministry has placed Mashhood’s name on the Exit Control List (ECL).

ACE: The Anti-Corruption Establishment claimed on Friday to have retrieved more than 150 kanal state land worth Rs2.5bn from the illegal occupants in Gujranwala.

According to a spokesperson, a private housing scheme -- City Housing Society Gujranwala -- was established on the state land of revenue and irrigation departments. The CEO of City Housing Society with the help of corrupt officers and officials of the concerned department was selling the state land to the citizens with forgery and fraud.

The Gujranwala ACE after investing the whole matter took action against City Housing Scheme CEO Malik Aamir Ishaq and others and registered an FIR against them. During investigation, it has been revealed that District Assessment Committee had fixed the state land which had been included in City Housing Scheme, at Rs30.3million per acre, the spokesperson said.

“But society owners with the support of corrupt officers and officials of the revenue department got this land at a rate of Rs7.2m per acre and started selling the same to the people at a cost of Rs17m and caused damage to the national exchequer.”

Published in Dawn, August 24th, 2019