- CJP asks whether ‘political masters’ will also pass resolutions in provincial assemblies against SC
- Court summons record of Ahad Cheema’s salaries and perks
LAHORE: Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mian Saqib Nasir on Saturday refrained bureaucrats from protesting against the arrest of former Lahore Development Authority (LDA) chairman Ahad Cheema in a corruption scandal, stating that no government official shall boycott their offices in protest.
Hearing a suo motu notice on various public welfare issues, the chief justice also directed the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) not to harass anyone.
Punjab Chief Secretary Zahid Syed and LDA Director General Zahid Akhtar Zaman also appeared before the bench.
The NAB had arrested Ahad Cheema in relation to the Ashiana Housing Scheme corruption scandal.
The NAB has alleged that Cheema abused his power as LDA chairman and awarded the contract of Ashiana Housing Scheme to Lahore Casa Developers (LCD) and Bismillah Engineering, which were not eligible for the project.
Following the arrest of Ahad Cheema, officers belonging to the District Management Group (DMG) locked down their offices in protest against, what they termed was the “unlawful arrest” of the former LDA chairman by NAB. During a meeting with Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif, the officers demanded Cheema’s release, saying that if his arrest was necessary he should have been taken into custody properly and not in an “unlawful” way. Later in the day, the chief minister directed the officials to reopen their offices.
During the hearing, the chief justice remarked in relation to the protesting bureaucrats, “whoever wants to resign should go home.”
“Persons summoned by NAB should appear before the anti-corruption watchdog,” said the chief Justice.
The CJP then asked on what basis the resolution against NAB was passed in the assembly, adding that would such a resolution be passed against the top court also?
“Political masters and bosses are capable of it,” he said.
On February 28, the Punjab Assembly adopted a resolution, condemning the NAB for ‘harassing and humiliating’ government officials and engaging in their character assassination by advertising their arrests in the media before presenting them in courts.
During the hearing, the CJP questioned the LDA DG on the process of entering into contracts with private companies for development work since the LDA is to work for them. To which Zaman said that according to the law, LDA was in partnership with six companies.
The CJP then summoned details of the owners and shareholders of all six companies. Upon being asked who the DG was when these contracts were made, Zaman said it was Ahad Cheema, who is currently arrested by NAB officials and is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Quaid-e-Azam Power Plant.
The CJP then turned to the chief secretary and asked of Ahad Cheema’s income and incentives, to which the secretary replied that DMG officers earn 100,000 while Cheema earned 15,000,000. At this, the CJP summoned details of Cheema’s service profile, salary, perks and incentives.
