Pakpattan Land Probe: Supreme Court Appoints New JIT Head

The Supreme Court (SC) on Thursday appointed Director General Anti-Corruption Punjab Hussain Asghar as new Joint Investigation Team (JIT) head in the Pakpattan land case, after Director-General National Counter-Terrorism Authority (NACTA) Khaliq Dad Lak excused himself for personal reasons.

LAHORE, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 27th Dec, 2018 ) :The Supreme Court (SC) on Thursday appointed Director General Anti-Corruption Punjab Hussain Asghar as new Joint Investigation Team (JIT) head in the Pakpattan land case, after Director-General National Counter-Terrorism Authority (NACTA) Khaliq Dad Lak excused himself for personal reasons.

The JIT, under the new leadership, had been directed to submit the terms of reference (ToRs) within 10 days.

A three-member SC bench, headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, heard the application of Khaliq Dad Lak at the Supreme Court Lahore registry.

Khalid Dad had submitted that he was unable to head the JIT, formed to investigate the matter, due to personal reasons.

At this, the chief Justice observed that reasons were based on facts; therefore, no pressure could be exerted on him.

Subsequently, the bench appointed DG Anti-Corruption Punjab as the new JIT head and sought the ToRs within 10 days, while adjourning the matter.

On Dec 14, the Supreme Court had constituted a JIT comprising officials of the National Counter-Terrorism Authority (Nacta), Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Intelligence Bureau (IB) to probe the role of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif in allotment of land adjacent to Pakpattan in 1986, allegedly in violation of a high court order.

Being the chief minister of Punjab, Nawaz Sharif had, in 1986, ordered withdrawing a notification of Dec 17, 1969 and allegedly allotted 14,000 kanals of land of the Auqaf Department around Pakpattan to Dewan Ghulam Qutab in violation of the high court order.