A contentious land deal has come to a halt following decisive intervention from an intelligence agency and senior officials within the Capital Development Authority (CDA).
Earlier in the week, the Chairman of the CDA suspended two officials from the land directorate due to suspicions surrounding their involvement in irregularities. Insider reports suggest that additional suspensions may be forthcoming.
It has been reported that a government watchdog, known for its anti-corruption efforts, may be implicated in this matter. Allegedly, officials from this watchdog pressured their counterparts at the CDA to expedite the transfer of land, employing intimidating tactics along the way.
Several key CDA officers, including Deputy Commissioner Sardar Mohammad Asif and Tehsildar Mirza Saeed, were informally summoned by the watchdog to hasten the issuance of a possession letter for the land. Despite the pressure, some CDA officials refused to yield, citing concerns about the irregularities in the land allocation process.
These officials endured hours of harassment before being instructed to issue the possession letter the following day. When some officials continued to resist issuing the controversial possession letter, they were summoned by the watchdog using an old case as leverage to compel compliance.
Disturbingly, the name of a well-known intelligence official was wrongfully used in the multi-billion land scam. Upon discovering that his name had been exploited in this fraudulent scheme, the outraged intelligence official promptly alerted the CDA chairman and the chairman of the watchdog, vowing to take strict action against all wrongdoers.
The CDA reacted swiftly by suspending two of its officials and initiating a thorough investigation. Within three days, a three-person inquiry team, led by Director Security Fatehul Manan, presented its findings. The investigation exposed the use of forged documents to allocate land to the heirs of two original landowners.?