Housing scams

Thousands of people are victims of both the legal and illegal private housing societies. The NAB authorities are now looking into this issue. The chairman of NAB believes that “those getting conned by private housing schemes include pensioners and old people”. He also added that “if owners of private housing schemes cannot provide a roof they should reimburse people’s money”. NAB has also asked the authorities concerned to take action against all illegal housing societies and publish their names in newspapers as well as place them on their websites in order to aware people to avoid investment in such societies. I am one of the victims of such scams. I invested in a housing society called Morgah City located in Islamabad. An amount of Rs1,500,000 was paid in the year 2007 for one kanal of residential plot in the society.

The society administration had an office in Sector F-10 and the management claimed that it had the approval of the CDA. Now the people concerned have disappeared. More than 11 years have passed and no construction has been done in the area. These scammers are not returning the hard-earned money of those who were affected. The purchasing power of Rs1,500,000 was much higher in 2007 than it is now. Had I deposited the money in a saving account, I would have earned profit on it. The entire scheme has resulted in a big loss. Will the CDA look into this matter? It will be appreciated if NAB takes notice of this scam and do something about it.

Nazar Abbas

Islamabad