Fake housing scheme: LHC refuses bail to fraud suspect

LAHORE: A division bench of the Lahore High Court on Monday dismissed a bail petition filed by a man involved in a Rs86 million scam. Faiz Ahmad is accused of selling plots in a fake housing scheme near Pattoki. Ahmad’s lawyer told the court that his client had not cheated anyone. “He was an employee, acting on the orders the housing scheme’s owners,” he said. “The Dost Muhammad Housing Scheme was established by three partners. However, Ahmad was implicated in the case,” the lawyer said. An officer representing the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) told the court that Ahmad and three other suspects had been involved in establishing the fake housing scheme and cheating people by selling plots. “The scheme was established only on paper. There was no such scheme according to government records. Faiz and the other accused swindled millions of rupees from 102 people. The people were not given ownership of the plots,” he told the court. After hearing the arguments, Justice Mazahir Ali Akbar Naqvi dismissed the bail petition.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 16^th, 2014.