ISLAMABAD: The then army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, when was told by Shahbaz Sharif about the inability of his younger brother Kamran Kayani to carry out the Lahore Ring Road construction work satisfactorily, had replied, “throw him out”.
A credible source close to General (retd) Kayani endorsed Shahbaz Sharif’s statement made in parliament on Wednesday about the fate of Kamran Kayani’s multi-billion rupees contract. Talking to The News, the source said that General (retd) Kayani, who was the army chief at that time, neither defended his brother nor tried to save his contract but had said that if Kamran was not working on merit, then “throw him out”. The source confirmed that later Kamran Kayani’s contract was cancelled but this issue never came under discussion between the then army chief and the then Punjab chief minister.
Not only this, the source also claimed that even Chaudhry Pervez Elahi, during whose tenure as Punjab chief minister Kamran Kayani’s company had got the Ring Road contract, could confirm that General Kayani had never spoken to him or anyone else to get any favour for his businessmen brothers, including Kamran Kayani. Some sections in the media have been found dragging the reputed former army chief in controversies surrounding his brother. The source said that the reports concerning General (retd) Kayani’s settlement in Australia or that he owns ranches there, are all fake news.
On Thursday, Shahbaz Sharif had said that the NAB Investigation Officer had told him that there was no corruption charge against him in the Ashiana-e-Iqbal Housing Scheme, but there was an allegation that he (Shahbaz) had attempted to award a contract of Rs1.5 billion project to Major (retd) Kamran Kayani only to please the then army chief.
Shahbaz told the National Assembly that he had replied to the NAB official as to how he could award such a contract to Major (retd) Kamran Kayani when he had already cancelled Rs35 billion contract of Kayani’s company ConPro for construction of the Ring Road in Lahore for its slow progress.
Shahbaz Sharif said, “I also met the former army chief General Ashfaq Kayani on the issue after Major Kamran did not pay heed to the advice to speed up the project.” He said ultimately the contract was cancelled.
Shahbaz Sharif was appreciative of the attitude of General Kayani, saying he had never complained against the cancellation of the contract awarded to his brother. “Not only that I cancelled the project but also sent the case to the anti-corruption department,” Shahbaz said.
Meanwhile, a NAB source confided to The News that the complaint against Calsons was actually made by one Burhan. The source said that Burhan had actually recorded the audio evidence of the secret meeting where bidding documents were being manipulated.
“They were doing some changing in bidding documents which I feel was wrong so I made the evidence and gave it to the PLDC people,” the source quoted the complainant as saying. The complainant said that Kamran Kayani contacted him with whom he had shared his evidence. Later, he said that the anti-corruption department, Punjab, had called him for his statement regarding his complaint.
