ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau’s Rawalpindi branch has recovered Rs465 million from the accused of six different scams and distributed the money among 166 affected people.

Cheques were distributed among the affected people of the scams by NAB Deputy Chairman Imtiaz Tajwar in a ceremony at the bureau’s headquarters on Monday.

According to the NAB spokesman, the recoveries have been made in the scams involving the Baba Fareed Housing Society, the Parliamentarian Enclave Housing Scheme, Islamabad, a rental power project on Summundri Road in Faisalabad, the National Fertiliser Marketing Limited, the Capital Builders case, a case against a former manager of the Habib Bank Limited’s University of Engineering Taxila (UET) branch and a case against the chief executive a construction firm, Eden Builders.

The NAB deputy chairman said the bureau was making efforts to recover looted money from corrupt people. He urged people to invest only in government-approved schemes through the banking system.

Director General of the NAB’s Rawalpindi branch, Zahir Shah, urged people to be vigilant and check credentials of investment companies and housing societies before giving them their hard- earned money.

On the occasion, information about the scams was shared with the media.

CAPITAL BUILDERS SCAM: Tassaduq Pervez, chief executive of the Capital Builders, with others launched a housing scheme called New Islamabad Garden in Sector C-17 of federal capital in 2005. People booked more than 3,000 plots in the housing society though its sponsors did not obtain a no-objection certificate from the Capital Development Authority (CDA) and owned only 305 kanals of land.

NAB investigated the matter on complaints received from people.

To avoid legal proceedings and arrest, Tassaduq Pervez voluntarily came forward and submitted an application for plea bargain which was accepted by a former director general of NAB and subsequently approved by the Accountability Court of Islamabad.

Published in Dawn, June 7th, 2016