LAHORE, Feb 18: Cheques for Rs50 million were presented here on Monday to 800 depositors of cooperative finance corporations.

Addressing the cheque distribution ceremony, Maj-Gen Syed Usman Abbasi, the National Accountability Bureau deputy chairman, said around Rs168 million would be distributed among 10,000 victims of the cooperatives scam during the current phase of payments which concludes on June 2. The NAB, he said, will also retire the loans obtained from nationalized banks.

Gen Abbasi held successive governments responsible for the suffering of the co-op victims. He said making the heads of failed cooperatives incharge of the recovery drive had nearly sealed its fate.

Brig Farooq Mann of the NAB-Punjab also addressed the ceremony. He requested the people to point out the properties of those who had benefited from irregularities in the cooperatives. The NAB, he admitted, had succeeded only up to a point.