Looted monies recovered: Victims of fraud get back Rs339.29m

NAB retrieved money from bogus land schemes in the capital, power defaulter

ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Thursday distributed around Rs339.29 million which had been recovered from those involved in different scams in the capital.

Special Assistant to Prime Minister for Human Rights Barrister Zafarullah Khan handed over cheques to around 21 affected people and government departments who had been affected by corruption.



He appreciated efforts of NAB Chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry and his team for actively pursuing corruption cases and recovering embezzled money. The special assistant urged people not to be seduced by huge profits promised by unauthorised money schemes since such schemes only deprive the people of their hard earned money.

He asked people to invest only in government-approved banking, investment and housing ventures.

NAB Rawalpindi director general said that the bureau is pursuing people who loot the public at large through corrupt practices.

Money which was returned on Thursday had been looted by Techno-E Power from Samundri in Faisalabad. NAB had recovered Rs232.12 million from the company and handed over the money to officials of Northern Power Generation Company Limited (NPGCL).

In the case of the New Islamabad Garden housing scheme, the builder had booked over 3,000 plots in 2005 in Sector C-17 of the capital even though it did not have a no-objection certificate from the Capital Development Authority (CDA). Moreover, it only had 305 Kanals of land at the time.



However, Tassaduq Pervez, chief of the construction company Capital Builders – who were building the housing scheme, struck a plea bargain with NAB and returned Rs208.67 million against claims from 1,145 affectees of the housing scheme. NAB returned Rs188.05 million to the victims of this scheme over five phases. On Thursday, the bureau returned an additional Rs2.9 million to the victims.

In another case, Ehtesham Malik of the Maqbool Construction voluntarily returned up Rs3 million after being caught misusing the name of Turkish Housing Development Authority (TOKI) to illegally import construction machinery, equipment and vehicles. By misusing the name, Malik had deprived the national exchequer of customs duties.

The money was returned to Siyahkalem Engineering Construction Industry & Trade Co. Ltd.

The bureau also helped recover Rs5.11 million from a power defaulter of IESCO.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 31^st, 2017.