Accountability: NAB chairman hands cheques to housing scam victims

Officials who unveiled the scams were also commended.

HYDERABAD: The victims of two housing project scams were compensated on Monday by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Justice (retd) Syed Deedar Hussain Shah, who distributed cheques and documents of residential plots among the allotees.

The chairman also lauded the officials who helped carry out the investigation into the Lal Shahbaz housing scheme and Gulshan-e-Hassan housing project in Jamshoro district.

The ceremony was organised by NAB, Sindh. NAB, Sindh, Director Investigation Major (retd) Shabir Ahmed gave a briefing on the two scams. He said that in the Lal Shahbaz project, additional charges were collected from the allottees for West-open, road-facing and corner plots.

The accused party entered into a voluntary return and plea bargain under Section-25 of the NAB Ordinance, 1999 and paid back Rs17 million to the bureau, Ahmed added.

So far, NAB compensated 815 allottees with cheques and demand drafts, which ranged from Rs6,000 to Rs30,000. The second scam involved 80 plots being allotted to 200 buyers.

Later, Deedar Shah handed over shields and commendation certificates to the officers who helped unveil the housing scams. These included Hyderabad District Administrator Aftab Ahmed Khatri, Hyderabad Development Authority Director-General Shabbir Qayamkhani, Sehwan Development Authority Director-General Altaf G Memon and NAB, Sindh Assistant Director Atta Muhammad Qureshi.

The chairman asked the builders to honour the commitments with their clients by handing over the possession of the plots or units on time. He warned them that NAB would take action against any such scheme or builders found delaying their commitments for no reasons.

“It was a heartening to see the people who had almost lost their investments being compensated,” he said.

On the issue of interest payments to the allottees, as their investment had been stuck for longer than a decade, he said NAB would look into the matter and justice would be served.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 18^th, 2011.