NAB summons Pervaiz Elahi in forest land case

ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has summoned Punjab Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi in connection with its probe into illegal allotment of forest land in Rawalpindi to a private housing society during his last tenure as Punjab chief minister.

A senior NAB official told The News that the Bureau is probing the former Punjab chief minister who had ordered demarcation of forest land in the Takht Pari area of Rawalpindi that eventually benefited his family.

“Pervaiz Elahi has been summoned personally to join NAB investigation next week along with a son of his cousin and the former prime minister Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain,” said the NAB officer. The incumbent speaker had already been summoned by NAB in the first week of January but he did not turn-up at the Bureau’s Rawalpindi office.

NAB is investigating the scam on the directions of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, the official said. Last month, the Supreme Court had summoned the former chief minister to “explain under which authority he had ordered demarcation of forest land in the Takht Pari area of Rawalpindi that eventually benefited his family.”

“As a result of the demarcation, some government land went to Messrs Bahria Town (Pvt) Ltd and then eventually came back to the family of the former chief minister,” observed Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar heading a five-judge bench.