When looked at without taking account of the specific factors involved, the Rs17 billion DHA land scam is essentially no different to the dozens others similar to it that take place across the country. It is the people involved who make it different, with the action taken now opening up the possibility of more to follow. Essentially, while the scam had been known about for years, NAB’s failure to act has been attributed to the involvement of key persons associated with the military, or military officers themselves, at various levels. There are now indicators that those restrictions have been lifted. It seems the go-ahead to act apparently comes from the very top of the army hierarchy. Following this, the key accused in the case, Hammad Ashraf, CEO of Globaco Pvt has been arrested. Reports state that raids are also on to arrest Kamran Kayani, who is accused of involvement in the massive scam through his company, Elysium.
The Kayani name no doubt rings bells. Kamran is the brother of former army chief Ashfaq Parvez Kayani. He is reported to be out of the country at present, and other brothers have denied General (r) Kayani was in any way involved himself, but the ring appears to be closing in with other influential individuals also being mentioned, including established land tycoons. The scam itself was not complicated. In 2009, Ashraf reached an agreement with DHA EME Lahore to acquire 25,000 kanals of land and establish a scheme for martyred soldiers, offering their families higher quality life. The scheme, worth Rs16 billion, was also open to ordinary citizens. It is alleged that Ashraf was able to acquire less than half this land, but issued fake allotment letters and pocketed some 5.7 billion rupees. Kayani is suspected of acquiring Rs500 million through similar deception in a farmhouse scheme. The DHA is reportedly handling 11,000 complainants. This leads to many questions. Should the military even be involved in the land business? The critical issue here is that of accountability. If the COAS’s pledge that no one will be immune from it, regardless of their uniform, or lack of it, is true then we would be moving in the right direction and breaking with past patterns.
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