ISLAMABAD (Kashmir English): On Tuesday, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) gave out a total of Rs341 million to 476 people who had lost money in the Bankers City Housing Scheme fraud.
The NAB reported that the distribution of the amount took place during a ceremony which was chaired by the NAB Chairman, retired Lt-Gen Nazir Ahmed. It was said that a total of Rs 341 million was shared amongst 476 distressed, with Rs 120 million being given to 316 claimants through payment orders and Rs 221 million to 160 applicants via online transactions.
The recovery of funds that remain will be done in such a way that it will be through a process of verification that the remaining 2,200 victims are identified and paid. This has been a big step towards NAB’s mission of restoring order to the financial sector by bringing justice to those who have suffered from scams for a long time.
The Bankers City scandal was first exposed in 2006, leading to a formal investigation in 2007 based on many public complaints. The housing society had been registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) since 2003 and claimed to own 14,000 kanals of land in Islamabad, Rawalpindi, and Haripur.
Nevertheless, it was uncovered during the investigation that the management was resorting to deceptive ads and unsubstantiated documents to siphon off the money from unsuspecting citizens, even when the land was not approved by the relevant authority, nor was it consolidated, and the promised plots were never delivered.
NAB went through a very thorough and unyielding investigation, along with long and drawn-out litigation, to succeed in recovering a total of Rs1.209 billion from the criminals.
They are not stopping as efforts for monetary recovery are ongoing. “In an extraordinary accomplishment, NAB has returned an amount to the victims which is 2.5 times higher than their original investment,” an official press release from the NAB stated.
NAB’s investigation team, led by Waqar Ahmed Chuhan, Director General NAB Islamabad/Rawalpindi, received acknowledgments for their efforts from the NAB chief, who also expressed his gratitude to the prosecutor general for keeping the case alive.
Additionally, he appreciated the Lahore High Court, Rawalpindi bench for turning down the accused’s appeal and sending the case back to the trial court in the larger public interest. The NAB chairman talked to the public and personally expressed his happiness that justice was done in a trial many thought would never end.
He attributed the success to the collaboration of the NAB Rawalpindi team and the legal prosecution department. He conveyed that NAB was a public-friendly organization that cared for the savings of the public for a lifetime and warned that the bureau would never cease to chase the scammers who prey on innocent people.
The chairman insisted that before the public made any investment, they must check the legal status of housing schemes. Waqar Ahmed Chohan, Director General of NAB ( Islamabad/Rawalpindi), emphasized during the event how difficult the investigation team had to go through in order to trace hidden assets and bank accounts that were frozen.
The bureau, in a bid to practice absolute transparency and engage the public, declared that new victims with legitimate claims were still being accepted, provided a verification process was done.
It was reiterated that NAB was not going to stop until the last victim of the scam gets back his or her hard-earned money. One of the widowers present in the cheque distribution ceremony claimed that this act of kindness has restored his faith in the system.
An affected Chinese investor was full of praise for the fair treatment by NAB and the professionalism of the investigation team in managing the case.
