How a Cook
Unraveled a Multi-Billion Dollar Army Scam in Lahore
By
M T Butt
ISLAMABAD,
May 31: A Pakistani chef of an influential Saudi Royal Family
Prince cooked the goose of a top Pakistani General, several of
his crony officers and has brought monumental infamy to the Pakistan
Army, by exposing the biggest ever land fraud in the country’s
history.
This
cook must get the Pride of Performance Award because he unknowingly
forced General Pervez Musharraf to admit the biggest scandal of
his six-year tenure – the grabbing of land and fictitious
sales of non-existent residential plots, for billions of rupees,
to unsuspecting innocent Pakistanis, living both inside Pakistan
and abroad.
The
bizarre story of the Saudi cook began when Mohammed Sharif (name
changed) bought a piece of land in the Lahore Defence Housing
Authority, managed and run by Army Officers, falling prey to the
dubious sale of plots, believing that since Pakistan Army was
managing it, he would not be swindled and would be able to get
a piece of land which will give him and his family dividends on
his investment.
The
poor man was sadly mistaken. When on a brief vacation to Lahore,
Mohammed Sharif wanted to have a look at the piece of land he
had supposedly paid for, the Pakistan Army Brigadier and his juniors
in the DHA, gave him the usual frustrating run around. He was
never shown his land.
Exhausted, shocked and in a state
of disbelief, Mohammed Sharif returned to his job with the Prince
but at an opportune moment informed his royal employer of what
had happened. The Prince was furious. He straightway picked up
the phone and dialed General Pervez Musharraf.
Deeply
embarrassed, the General, who would not listen to any one else
except, of course, some body from Washington, asked his Vice Chief
to order an inquiry as the main culprit was Musharraf’s
own recently-shifted Corps Commander in Lahore, Lt. General Zarrar
Azim, famous in Lahore Real Estate circles as General Zarrar
Zamin.
Since the new Corps Commander
wanted the facts, it turned out that the entire hierarchy of DHA,
headed by a Brigadier was deep in collusion with some real estate
agencies and were minting billions in fraudulent sales to people
like Mohammed Sharif.
The
entire top management of DHA was removed but no one, including
the Brigadier, was sacked, obviously because General Zarrar Azim,
now posted in the GHQ, protected them.
The
news of the DHA shake-up was broken by Lahore’s Daily “The
News” on February 5, 2005. In a report from Lahore
it said the military authorities had removed the top management
of DHA on alleged corruption in the planned Phases 6-10 of the
Lahore Cantonment Cooperative Housing Society (LCCHS). Click
to read story
But the newspaper said DHA Administrator Brigadier Abdul Jalil
Khan, Director Land, Lt. Col Ikram, Director Transfers Lt. Col
Feroz Bhatti and Deputy Director Land Major Razaq had only been
shifted and “placed at the disposal of the Station Headquarters.”
“Brigadier Fazal Nawaz Khan has replaced the outgoing Administrator
Brigadier Abdul Jalil. Brigadier Nawaz Khan is from infantry,
and has been posted at the National Defense College (NDC). The
military authorities have constituted an enquiry committee, headed
by Commandant Signals Brigade of the 4 Corps Brigadier Khalilullah
Butt. The enquiry is underway against military officials and some
high-profile realtors."
"The
realtors include Yousuf Chauhan of the Chauhan Estate, Haji Allah
Ditta of Defense Estate Mr Sahir of Sahir Estate. Apart from these,
the owners of Panjnad Estate are also being interrogated,”
the newspaper reported.
In its own guarded way, since writing negatively about top Army
officers is a risky business in Pakistan, The News said:
“The trail of the enquiry is expected to lead the investigators
to a couple of high-ranking serving military officials as well.
It is important to note this enquiry has been initiated on the
orders of Vice Chief of the Army Staff (VCOAS), General Ahsan
Saleem Hayat. Commander 4-Corps (Lahore), Lt-Gen Shahid Aziz,
has played an important role.”
The
most disgusting response about the multi-billion scandal came
from the Chief Military spokesman, the Director General of Inter-Services
Public Relations, Major General Shaukat Sultan, who contemptuously
said: “Transfers and posting of Army officials beneath the
rank of Major Generals are not made public by the Army, and media
has nothing to do with it.”
The media had everything to do with it as thousands of innocent
Pakistanis had risked the savings of their lives by investing
in a fraud perpetrated in the name of the Pakistan Army by senior
officials.
The most credible information about the scandal and the impact
of the Army probe was reported by those in the business of real
estate. A specialized web site on Pakistan’s Real Estate
scene (Click
to see full message) reproduced this comment by a reporter
in the center of the scam:
“When
DHA's new management started investigations, it stopped all transfers
of ownership on files that were submitted by those banned dealers
under investigation. Now DHA have reached some kind of agreement
with these dealers. Details are not official but news on the street
is that banned dealers have agreed to pay over Rs 1 billion to
have their files cleared by DHA.
“Also
I am told by people that this money that the DHA will get from
dealers will be used to reduce development charges....Now hundreds
of files that are returned to the dealers after completing transfers
will be given to original owners. Remember these dealers sold
these very files for Rs 6 to 7 million each just 4 weeks ago.”
“In
the past week alone 600 to 700 files were handed over by DHA after
transfers were completed according to some very big dealers. The
spate of these files is causing price drops in the DHA market.
On normal days 30-40 files are transferred by DHA.”
This
reporting by insiders revealed that in one week alone if 600 plots
were transferred, each costing Rs 6 million, the total would be
Rs 3.6 billion. On the higher side the figure could be Rs 5 billion.
All this is one week’s activity of correcting the frauds
perpetrated by the sacked DHA management. The whole scandal would
run into several hundred billion if not in trillions.
According
to guarded reporting by another Lahore newspaper, Daily Times,
(March 24, 2005), "intelligence agencies had begun investigations
six months back and a large number of DHA administration employees
were under surveillance. One of the officers under inquiry has
agreed to reveal all he knows about the scam in exchange for immunity.
Click
to read story
The
Daily Times reported that property dealers had acquired
several acres of land belonging to the government with fake names,
in connivance with land revenue officials, and thereafter gave
it to the DHA authorities. “The dealers acquired agricultural
land (now DHA phases 5 to 10) and handed that to the DHA free
of cost on the agreement that 25 per cent would be returned to
them after their inclusion in the society. Due to stark differences
in the prices of agricultural and DHA property, this translated
into a very lucrative profit for investors.”
The
investigations have led to the blacklisting of four major real
estate agents in DHA: Chauhan Estate, Defence Estate, Property
Talk and Al-Rehman Associate. Their offices were sealed and their
records were confiscated. DHA security personnel have been posted
outside the offices to ensure no one goes in.
The DHA administrator, Brig Nawaz
Khan, said about the sealing of real estate agencies, “We
sealed the offices after repeated complaints by people. Investigations
are continuing. I can’t add anything further.” In
a press conference a few days ago, he had said, “DHA will
honor its commitments to the people.”
Last
week DHA allowed reopening of the real estate offices which were
earlier sealed because of irregularities as a court ordered the
DHA to allow it since legal formalities in closing them were not
fulfilled.
This was another way of helping
the collaborators otherwise why would the Army not meet legal
requirements to prosecute criminals who had swindled billions.
Newspapers reported that DHA had
allowed the offices to be reopened, but would not deal with them
directly or indirectly. “They are still blacklisted and
the DHA is not going to issue affidavits and allocation letters
for property being dealt by them.” DHA authorities said
that these offices had been sealed because many people had complained
of “irregularities” in transactions.
The most disturbing aspect of
the whole scandal, feared by some real estate experts, is that
in their scramble to make big money, Army Officers working in
the DHA may have sold large tracts of lands to Indian buyers who
were investing in DHA lands through their Dubai front offices.
According
to one source one company had been inquiring about buying 500
acres of land near the Pak-India border. Under the mess that was
going it, it may have done so already.
