Castles In the Air: Housing scheme selling ‘fake’ plots

LAHORE: National Accountability Bureau Chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry has sought a report from the NAB Punjab regional director general in a fraud complaint against the Formanites Housing Scheme, NAB officials familiar with the matter told The Express Tribune. The housing scheme is accused of taking Rs500 million from more than 900 people to book plots of land the scheme doesn’t own. NAB officials said they had received 900 complaints in this regard so far. The Lahore Development Authority had approved 1,200 kanals of land for the first phase of the housing scheme but the people running the operation have allegedly sold thousands of kanals of land that only exist on paper. The NAB chairman has now directed the NAB Punjab DG to expedite the process of recovery in this case so that the victims could receive compensation soon. He has sought a report on this within the week.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 10^th, 2014.