PESHAWAR, Jan 19: The man who championed the cause of those robbed of their lifelong savings at the hands of a cooperative society embezzlers, after himself facing a similar fate, has died in miserable conditions.

Haji Shamsul Haq, the general-secretary of Lead Cooperative Society Scam Affectees Action Committee, passed away and his family attributes his death to non-recovery of his stuck-up money by the government.

They said he expired on Jan 14 and was suffering from cardiac ailment. They stated that he had invested his lifelong earnings with the Lead Cooperative Society (LCS) but its office-bearers embezzled his money as well as that of hundreds of other account holders.

Despite passage of more than a decade the lost money of these affectees could not be recovered and many of them had died without proper medical treatment.

One of the affectees, Nazir Gul, had died of cancer a year ago as he had no money for his treatment. He had sent an application to the National Accountability Bureau chairman for the recovery of Rs150,000, stuck up with the society, but to no avail.

The old parents, widow and children of Nazir Gul are still waiting for the recovery of their money. The society had looted about Rs23.3 million of the account holders in the NWFP.

The affectees, most of whom belong to poor families, have been passing through miserable times and are finding it hard to make both ends meet. Despite repeated requests to the president of Pakistan and NAB chairman, no action has been taken in this regard.

More than a decade ago, the Lead Cooperative Society was registered in Islamabad with the department of Food, Agriculture and Cooperatives. It offered very lucrative packages, which helped it in catching attention of a number of people, especially the retired government officials who were interested in investing their life's earnings in similar projects.

In Peshawar, the total number of account holders was 162. The society had opened two offices in the provincial capital. The chairman of the society was Muhammad Afzal Qureshi and its directors were Tariq Muhammad, Nisar Muhammad, Farooq Azam, Muhammad Akhter Qureshi and others.

Initially, the society paid profit to the account holders on the money they had invested. By the end of 1991, the society stopped paying the profit and offered different excuses for that.

When the account holders raised a hue and cry the chairman of the society was arrested and for quite some time he remained behind the bars before being released on bail. One of the affectees claimed that the chairman had declared his properties while registering the society, which should be confiscated.