By Ali Imran
ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has refunded Rs13.958 billion to 4,779 affected persons of Fazaia Housing Scheme, Karachi from out of a total 5,410.
Briefing a meeting presided over NAB chairman Justice (Retd) Javed Iqbal, Director General (DG) Karachi Dr Najaf Quli Mirza, said the bureau had refunded the money to most of the affected persons in compliance with the direction of Sindh High Court (HSC), said a press release on Tuesday.
The looted money of the remaining affected persons would be refunded after the sale of 16 acre project land worth Rs1.08 billion. The SHC had given two months’ time to complete the refund process.
The NAB DG Karachi informed the meeting that the Karachi bureau had conducted an investigation against Fazaia Housing Scheme Karachi regarding cheating the public at large on the basis of complaints of the general public.
The investigation had revealed that out of 8,083 housing units, the management of Fazaia Housing Scheme sold out 5,732 housing units to the general public and collected an amount of Rs18.2 billion from affected persons.
The project was still incomplete since 2015 except some basic structure work. The management of Fazaia Housing Scheme refunded Rs2.15 billion to the general public and released an amount of Rs2.336 billion to the Maxim Properties.
At that moment, an amount of Rs13.5 billion including bank profits was available in Fazaia Housing Scheme accounts of Habib Bank Limited and Meezan Bank. Two accused persons namely Tanvir Ahmed and Bilal Tanvir, both partners of M/s Maxim Properties and members of Project Management Executive Committee of Fazaia Housing Scheme, were arrested on December 28, 2019 and subsequently, sent on judicial custody by the Accountability Court on March 11, 2020.
