‘Ripping people off their money’

National Assembly body asks government to close down bogus schemes, punish officials involved in scams.

ISLAMABAD: A special committee of the National Assembly has recommended the government to close down all the bogus housing schemes operating in Islamabad. The committee also asked the government to take strict action against officials involved in the National Assembly Employees Housing Scheme (NAEHS) scam.

Sheikh Waqas Akram, Chairman of the special committee was assigned, by the NA Deputy Speaker, to probe into the matter of fraud in the NAEHS. He said that the committee had completed its report and would present it before the house in the committee session.

He said that the committee strongly recommended closing down of various bogus housing schemes in the federal capital and other cities, which had ‘robbed the citizens of their hard earned money by selling empty files to them’. Besides, he said that the committee had also asked for serious action against the responsible officials, who were found guilty of embezzling the money of the investors in the NAEHS. “They fooled people under the garb of providing them with plots,” said Akram.

“The committee report would be a comprehensive guideline for the housing societies and the fake ones should not be operational after these recommendations,” he added.

Akram said that the investigations were conducted and the report was prepared despite facing enormous difficulties. “People should get the fruit of this exercise,” he said.

However, he refused to pinpoint the officials who were involved in corruption, saying that each and everything was written in the report, which ‘is the property of the house and would be presented to it in the coming session’.

The report would also be shared with the society members in the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the society, which would be summoned to evolve the future line of action. He said that the Deputy Commissioner Islamabad being Registrar of the Cooperative Society was authorised to call the AGM.

Deputy Commissioner Islamabad, Amir Ali Ahmed, when contacted, said that the AGM would be called soon after coordinating with the NA committee, which was involved in the investigation.

It is pertinent to mention here, that as many as 3,000 investors had invested in the NAEHS. Out of these, around 1400 are employees of the National Assembly.

The committee chairman also stated that according to the findings, almost all of the officials and property dealers at the helm of managing the project since the last two decades were guilty of corruption.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 22^nd, 2010.