ISLAMABAD: National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has filed a reference against officers/officials in Accountability Court Islamabad for their alleged involvement in illegal award of lease of Railway Golf Club, Lahore.
The reference has been filed against accused former Secretary/Chairman Railways/former Federal Minister for Communication and Railways, Lt Gen (Retd) Javed Ashraf Qazi, former Secretary/Chairman Railways Board, Lt Gen (Retd) Saeed-uz-Zafar, former General Manager (GM) (M&S) Pakistan Railways, Maj Gen (Retd) Hamid Hassan Butt, former GM (Operations) Pakistan Railways, Iqbal Samad Khan, former Member Finance, Pakistan Railways, Khurshid Ahmed Khan, Director Directorate of Property & Land Pakistan Railways, Brig (Retd) Akhtar Ali Baig, former Divisional Superintendent, Pakistan Railways, Abdul Ghaffar and sponsors of Royal Palm Golf Club, Ramzan Sheikh and Pervaiz Qureshi, and five other officers and officials.
As per details issued here on Monday, in year 2001, Pakistan Railways offered lease of its Golf Club at Canal Bank Lahore for 33 years for which a number of firms submitted bids including MAX Corps Pvt Ltd.
During bidding process, the lease period was illegally enhanced from 33 years to 49 years. Moreover, the land offered also increased illegally from 103 Acers to 140 Acers by demolishing Railway officer colony. Hence, precious piece of land was leased out illegally in a non-transparent manner in order to grant illegal benefits to lease holder that is Main Land Hasnain Limited.
It has been established during investigation that the above mentioned accused persons have committed offense of corruption and corrupt practices through misuse of authority by illegal award of 49 years lease of Railway Golf Club Lahore measuring 140 acres in 2001 to M/s Mainland Hasnain Pakistan Limited (MHPL) for commercial purposes, causing a loss of Rs. 2.2 billion (approx) to national exchequer.
