NAB chief signed reference for probe into Fazaia Housing scam, court told.

Byline: Naeem Sahoutara

KARACHI -- The chairman of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has signed a reference relating to an inquiry into the Rs18 billion scam of the Fazaia Housing Scheme allegedly launched by private builders as a joint venture with the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) in 2015.

This was disclosed by an investigating officer in a progress report regarding the alleged scam filed with the administrative judge of the accountability courts, Dr Sher Bano Karim, on Thursday.

Suspects Tanvir Ahmed and Bilal Tanvir of the M/s Maxim Properties have been arrested on charges of cheating the public in the name of the Fazaia Housing Scheme launched as a joint venture with the PAF in 2015.

On the last date, the judge had granted more time to file reference after the IO disclosed that the parties (PAF and M/s Maxim Properties) were trying to reach a settlement so that the allottees could be refunded, for which an arrangement was likely to be made by May 14.

Hundreds of thousands of documents are being photocopied in separate sets for each accused person

On Thursday, when the matter came before the administrative judge, IO Pervaiz Abro filed a progress report through special public prosecutor Shahbaz Sahotra stating that the NAB chairman had signed the reference with regard to the present inquiry and its original copy had been received from the NAB headquarters.

The report mentioned that the matter pertained to cheating the public in the name of housing project involving Rs18.2 billion collected from 5,700 allottees.

However, the report stated that the matter involved huge volume of record, including hundreds of thousands of documents of the affectees' claims, booking/installments receipts, voluminous bank account statements, engineering estimates, architectural plans, designs, including the multiple revised master plans, advertising material, huge payment record pertaining to thousands of the registered members and other miscellaneous documents.

The record is being photocopied in separate sets for each accused person, the report said, adding that the photocopying process had been affected due to the current pandemic situation prevailing in the whole country as the markets were closed during the lockdown.

Prosecutor Shahbaz Sahotra informed that efforts were under way to complete the process of photocopies of the reference documents, as...