Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has decided to dissolve the Naya Pakistan Housing and Development Authority (NAPHDA), a flagship project of former prime minister Imran Khan’s government.
Reliable sources confirmed that PM Sharif has decided to wind up the authority, a national construction organization responsible for the planning, development, construction and management of real estate projects across the country.
In this regard, the contract of Major General (retd) Amir Aslam Khan, the current NAPHDA chairman, has not been renewed.
Meanwhile, Captain (retd) Muhammad Zafar Iqbal has been appointed as the acting chairman of the authority. His appointment will be for a period of three months, according to a notification issued by the Establishment Division.
According to the notification, Captain (retd) Iqbal will hold additional charge as acting chairman either for three months or until a permanent appointment is made.
Iqbal is a BS-20 officer of the Pakistan Administrative Service, and is currently serving as the director general of the Federal Government Employees Housing Authority.
The authority had an annual budget of Rs400 million, and over the past five years, its total budget reached Rs2 billion yet its output remained zero, sources added.
The NAPHDA was established on January 15, 2020. The Senate of Pakistan passed the Naya Pakistan Housing and Development Authority Bill in 2019.
Earlier, A sessions court in Lahore has postponed the hearing of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s defamation case against the founder of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Imran Khan until 24 May 2025, media reported.
The case, which involves a claim of Rs 10 billion in damages, was heard by Additional Sessions Judge Yilmaz Ghani. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif appeared via video link while Advocate Muhammad Hussain, the lawyer for Imran Khan, cross-examined him. The cross-examination will continue during the next hearing.
During the hearing, the PTI founder’s lawyer asked Shehbaz Sharif whether the Rs 10 billion bribe offer linked to the Panama Papers case was mentioned in the claim.
The Prime Minister replied that the claim does not state that Imran Khan directly made him the offer.
When asked if former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had filed any direct claim for damages against the PTI founder, Shehbaz Sharif said that Imran Khan had accused Nawaz Sharif of offering a Rs 10 billion bribe through his brother.
He added that when this alleged offer was made, their other brother Abbas Sharif had already passed away, and only the two of them were alive.
Shehbaz Sharif also said that no family member’s name, including Nawaz Sharif or himself, was mentioned in the TV programme where the offer was discussed.
When a question was asked about the audio recording of Justice Malik Qayyum, Shehbaz Sharif’s lawyer Mustafa Ramday objected.
He said the question was taken from the PTI founder’s response, which the Supreme Court and Lahore High Court have already ruled is no longer valid. Ramday added that referring to the audio of Justice Qayyum and Shehbaz Sharif is an attempt to scandalise the matter and should not be allowed.
