DHA City scam Affected Gathered For Protest in Zaman Park

[LRE-Azan]

After Prime Minister Imran Khan arrived on Sunday in Lahore, people affected by the DHA City scam gathered outside his Zaman Park residence to stage a protest.

Traffic on Canal Road was blocked due to the protest and the police were called in to disperse the protesters. Around eight to 10 people were arrested, including two women according to protesters.


The protesters say eight years have passed since they bought plots in DHA City Lahore but they haven’t gotten the plots or their money back. They appealed to the prime minister to help them.

In December 2017, an accountability court charged three people -- Hammad Arshad, his brother Murad Arshad and Brigadier (retd) Khalid Nazeer Butt — of trading thousands of kanals of land fraudulently on behalf of DHA.
According to an agreement signed between DHA and a private company on June 14, 2010, the latter was to provide the housing authority with 25,000 kanals of land in return for over Rs2 billion. However, Hammad and Murad only managed to sell 13,092 canals to DHA, most of which was on the riverbed of the Ravi River and inaccessible by road.

NAB began investigating the case in 2011 after a complaint was filed by a resident and DHA. Brigadier (retd) Butt is accused of approving the project even though the master plan hadn't been approved and 30% of the plots had not been allocated for families of martyrs, which is a requirement.

Former chief of army staff General (retd) Ashfaq Pervez Kayani's brother Kamran is an absconder in the case.

On September 24, people affected by the Eden Housing Society scam staged a protest outside the premier’s residence and also blocked traffic.