Jang/Geo owner has history of ‘corruption, disseminating fake news’
LAHORE: The mega-corruption case against Jang/Geo Group owner Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman of illegally obtaining 54 kanals of prime land in Lahore, took a new turn on Tuesday when the Accountability Court judge asked the prosecutor to find the impact of NAB Amendment Ordinance on it.
While suspending the hearing till November 2, Accountability Court Judge Asad Ali ordered the NAB prosecutor to appear with instructions from authorities following the recently passed NAB Ordinance.
The case, filed by NAB in June 2020, has been dragging since then mostly due to the delaying tactics of defence lawyers.
NAB’s position in the amended ordinance should be heard first, stated Amjad Pervez Advocate.
NAB Amendment Ordinance calls for action only against public office holders in the NAB court. This 34-year-old case also involves Nawaz Sharif, who was chief minister Punjab at that time. The NAB reference said that the land, situated in Block-H, Johar Town was illegally allotted to Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman in connivance with Nawaz Sharif against the exemption policy, causing a loss of Rs.143.53 million to the national exchequer.
“The accused Mir Shakil obtained 54 plots of one kanal each on exemption with the support of then Chief Minister Nawaz Sharif,” the NAB prosecutor said.
He also said that Mir Shakil incorporated two streets running in these allocated plots with the involvement of Nawaz Sharif.
Later, the accused Mir Shakil transferred these plots in the name of his wife and minor children to cover up his crime, he added.
Mir Shakil was present with his sons Ismail and Ishaq during the court proceedings. Other co-accused, the former DG of the LDA, Humayun Faiz Rasool and Bashir Ahmad also appeared before the court.
Another co-accused Nawaz Sharif has been declared a fugitive in this case for not appearing despite being summoned.
In the NAB reference, Mir Shakil, former DG LDA Humayun Faiz Rasool and Bashir Ahmad have been found guilty.
In one solid piece of evidence, Amjad Pervez admitted that Mir Shakil got more lands than actually allotted to him.
NAB witnesses Azhar Ali and Mohammad Omar were also summoned today for cross-examination.
Meanwhile, Bol News anchorperson Fiza Akbar Khan in her programme Aisay Nahi Chalay Ga also analyzed the case, saying that Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman has a long history of corruption and abusing his media connections to illegally advance his business and personal interests.
While on one hand, Mir Shakil and his puppet journalists, such as Umar Cheema, resort to defamation and propaganda campaigns against rivals, on the other he abuses his media clout to advance commercial interests.
Mir Shakil’s media house is a factory for generating fake news, she said. Giving an example, she said that Jang/Geo owner even used the ICIJ platform and it’s recently-released Pandora Papers to disseminate fake news and hurl mud on the rivals. “This has compromised the entire ICIJ investigations,” she added.