The National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Rawalpindi, has distributed cheques worth Rs 185 million among 88 victims of Askaria Town land scam. The total scam amounts to Rs 500 million. NAB Rawalpindi Director General Rear Admiral Pervaiz Asghar distributed the cheques at a ceremony held here on Thursday.
Talking to reporters after the ceremony, he said the NAB had so far recovered Rs 185 million from the accused, which were about 30 percent of the total amount. The High Court had granted a stay on the land confiscated and frozen assets of the accused, he said.
"After the stay order is vacated by the court, the NAB will seek leave to appeal for the sale of land for 100 percent return of the looted money to the victims", he said. NAB Rawalpindi, he said, was working on other fake housing societies as well and very soon people involved in fraud would be booked under the law.
To a question about plea bargain with the accused, he said that the main reason of plea bargain was an earnest attempt to expedite the process of return the hard-earned money of the affected people as early as possible as litigation would take decades to settle and the value of money dips, he said.
"NAB is working to eliminate all form of crime from the society. We have picked up 550 cases after merger of FIA in January 2005 and about 90 percent cases were resolved and recoveries made. Most of the cases are relate to post office and small and medium enterprises' frauds, he said.
NAB Rawalpindi after receiving complaints about the Askaria Town started investigation and found that the accused sold 6,000 files while they possessed only 991 kanals of land and were trying to leave the country with Rs 500 million they collected from innocent people.
The NAB rounded most of them up including the main accused Major Tariq (Retd) and Major Anwarul Haq (Retd). So far Rs 185 million have been recovered while they have taken stay against the land and assets the NAB has impounded.
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