Despite being on ECL, Grand Hyatt case suspect works as Punjab planning chief

ISLAMABAD: The post of Punjab Planning & Development (P&D) chairman, one of the most important slots in the provincial bureaucracy, is currently occupied by an officer placed on the interior ministry's Exit Control List (ECL) last November due to his alleged involvement in the Grand Hyatt Islamabad case, The News learnt.

The P&D chairman Habib-ur-Rehman Gillani, a grade-21 officer of the Pakistan Administrative Services (PAS), was one of 12 persons whose names were added to the ECL on November 24, 2017 on the recommendation of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA). He was appointed to the position in June by the caretaker government.

Gillani was among the dozen ranking Capital Development Authority (CDA) officials and real estate developers investigated by the FIA for their alleged role in causing a Rs25 billion loss to the exchequer in the Grand Hyatt Islamabad case.

He had served the CDA asdirector estate management-II, Other officials under investigation included: former member estate Brig (retd) Asad Munir; former member planning and design Brig (retd) Nusrat Ullah; former member engineering Mian Moin-ud-Din Kakakhel: former member administration Shoukat Ali; former member finance Kamran Ali Qureshi; and former CDA chairman Kamran Lashari.

The FIA also nominated the chief executive of real estate development firm BNP Pvt Ltd Abdul Hafeez Sheikh; his wife Shazia Hafeez Sheikh; his father Abdul Majeed Sheikh; his brother Abdul Hameed Sheikh; and BNP Director Imran Ahmed.

The allegedly dirty dozen were nominated by the FIA in case FIR No.10/2017 for causing illegal losses of about Rs25 billion to the government through acts of fraud and forgery in the Grand Hyatt Hotel scam. The FIR was registered under sections 409, 419, 420, 468, 471, 201 and 109 of the Pakistan Penal Code, as read with section 5(2)47 of the Prevention Of Corruption Act (PCA) 1947.

The interior ministry placed their names on the ECL after taking six months to fulfill legal formalities. However, Gillani was granted a one-time exemption to attend an overseas conference last year in his then capacity as managing director of the Punjab Overseas Pakistanis Commission.

An FIA official, speaking to The News on condition of anonymity, said Gillani had been charged for signing the controversial lease deed with BNP in 2005 on behalf of the CDA. Gillani did not respond to requests for comments.

Fiaz-ul-Hassan Chohan, the Punjab Information Minister, said he unaware of the charges against the P&D chairman. Federal Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry declined to comment.

On the other hand, Brig (retd) Nusrat Ullah was stopped at a Pakistan airport after arriving from overseas because of his inclusion in the ECL. He was later allowed to leave the airport premises after intervention from an unidentified official in Islamabad.

Similarly, Kamran Lashari, the incumbent director-general of the Walled City Lahore Authority, has had his application to remove his name from the ECL declined by the interior ministry. Lashari said he had applied because the names of the nominated 12 officials and developers had initially been placed on the ECL for just three months.

The FIA had registered the FIR against the BNP executives and former top CDA officials for their alleged connivance in the Grand Hyatt Islamabad case. It is based on the controversial CDA auction in March 2005 of a 13.5-acre commercial plot to BNP for Rs 4.88 billion. Following the FIA investigation, the CDA terminated the lease for the hotel in August 2017.