ISLAMABAD: The federal government has asked the Apex Court to declare 49-year lease of Pakistan Railways (PR) land to the Royal Palm Golf Club, causing a loss of over Rs10 billion to the national exchequer.
A three-member bench headed by Justice Mian Saqib Nisar was hearing the case of allotment of Railways land for Royal Palm Golf Course, which was granted during the regime of former president Pervez Musharraf. Former Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry in 2011 had taken suo moto of the case on the application of Ishaq Khakwani and Dr Mobashir Hassan.
Three retired generals Lt-Gen (R) Javed Ashraf Qazi, Lt-Gen (R) Saeeduz Zafar and Maj-Gen (R) Hassan Butt are allegedly involved in fraudulent allotment of 141 acres of Pakistan Railways land to a golf club in Lahore.
Additional Advocate General Khawaja Ahmed Hussain said that the contract for Golf Club was awarded in unlawful and non-transparent manner, therefore, it should be declared invalid.
He said in the advertisement the Railways land offered was 103 acres, but actually granted 140 acres land, as the parties had demanded that the quality Golf Club could not be established on 103 acres. He further submitted that in the public tender process one can’t enter into private negotiation.
