Accountability court orders completion of refund process in Fazaia Housing Scheme scam

An accountability court directed the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to complete the process of refund to the affected persons of the Rs18 billion Fazaia Housing Scheme scam till July 8 as per the order of the Sindh High Court (SHC).

In May, the SHC had directed the anti-graft watchdog to either make their own arrangements under the NAB ordinance to settle the payment issue with directors of the scheme or proceed to file a reference.

At the outset of hearing, NAB Investigation Officer Pervaiz Abro told the accountability courts administrative judge that the bureau was supervising the process of amount refund invested by the affected persons through the suspects and the Pakistan Air Force (PAF).

Two suspects, Tanvir Ahmed and Bilal Tanvir, who are top managers of the Maxim Properties, are in custody on charges of cheating the public in the name of the Fazaia Housing Scheme launched as a joint venture with the PAF in 2015.

Abro said that that the counsel for the builders and the PAF had informed the SHC that both the parties had reached a settlement agreement whereby the allotees would be refunded all the money paid by them in respect of their plots and settlement of all other liabilities.

He requested the court to allow more time to enable the NAB to supervise and complete such refund process till the next date of hearing. Allowing the request, the judge granted more time and adjourned the hearing till July 8.

According to the prosecution, the suspects kept the location of the project hidden to dodge the general public in the name of the PAF with the intention of minting money as much as they could. It added that they defrauded people for around Rs18 billion in the name of apartments, bungalows, surcharges and processing fees.

It said that the suspects, in the connivance with their accomplices, also tricked the PAF to accept a land falling in the K-IV project for its housing scheme. It added that this land was exchanged with another government land, which was required to be inspected as both the builders had yet to disclose its location.

Due to their allegedly deceitful scheme, the suspects altered the layout plans six times and finally decided to build 8,043 units in which the PAF owned 4,042 units and the Maxim Properties had the right to 4,041 units.

A progress report by NAB read that the PAF, out of its quota, had sold only 1,542 units to its employees. During the scrutiny of the record, it was found that contrary to the proportion agreed upon, the suspects sold around than 5,750 units, 1,700 units more than their fixed quota.