LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Thursday granted post arrest bail to former Rawalpindi commissioner Mahmood Ahmed and land acquisition collector Wasim Tabish in the Rawalpindi Ring Road corruption case.
Justice Shehram Sarwar ordered the release of the accused against furnishing bail bonds worth Rs10m each.
The former commissioner was arrested by Punjab’s Anti-Corruption Establishment on July 14.
It is pertinent to note that for the purpose of alignment in the Rawalpindi Ring Road project, neither an approval was sought from concerned quarters, nor any No Objection Certificates (NOCs) were acquired from the Capital Development Authority (CDA) and the National Highway Authority (NHA).
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The design of the project was changed and new interchanges were added in the project and the length of the road was increased from 22kms to 68kms.
It was further reported that the ring road’s new alignment benefited more than 50 influential people, real estate dealers and people connected with the project who had purchased 64,000 kanal land. The changes in the alignment increased the project’s cost to Rs25 billion.
Burhan Moazzam Malik, counsel for the accused petitioners, pointed out that no recovery had taken place so far.
The interrogation of both the officers had been completed and there was no justification for keeping them behind the bars. The lawyer of the anti-corruption establishment opposed the bail application and said that the accused former commissioner had exceeded his powers.
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He was accused of changing the alignment of ring road as project director. The counsel pointed out that his client had not changed the alignment of the project and the consultant had done the same.
The lawyer of the anti-corruption department opposed the bail application and said that the accused former commissioner had exceeded his powers and sufficient incriminating material available against the accused to implicate them.
After hearing arguments from both sides, Justice Sarwar granted bail to both the accused.
