14 May 2004	Friday	23 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1425

ISLAMABAD, May 13: The Nationally Accountability Bureau (NAB) has busted a gang in the Estate Office (EO) and arrested an official and a money changer involved in fake allotment of government houses, a source told Dawn on Thursday.

The source said the ring leader of the mafia, the chief inspector of the Estate Office, Syed Zamin Abbas, and the money changer, Qasim Sajro, were arrested on Wednesday.

A committee, comprising officials of NAB, Estate Office and Public Works Department, is interrogating the accused in the fake allotment case. They were arrested on a report filed by the EO and defunct army monitoring team after unearthing the scam. More arrests are expected in a few days.

Cases have also been filed against Estate Officer Khwaja Saifur Rehman and others. The source said some 40 people were involved in the scam. The fake allotments caused loss of millions of rupees to the national exchequer, he added.

According to a NAB report, the mafia, active in the EO for the last 15 years, had been involved in bogus hiring of houses, payments on fake sanctions, payment of advances to the owners beyond the lease agreement period, renting of government accommodation to private parties, especially in the I-9 and G-9 sectors.

In the works division, the report said, Qasim Sajro, a former government employee, initiated the bogus hiring of private accommodation in connivance with Syed Zamin Abbas and other officials of the EO, Public Works Department and Finance Division, just after his appointment in 1989.

Mr Sajro used to visit the Estate Office for hiring of accommodation for himself. He closely examined the loopholes in the hiring system, established contacts with some officials of the EO and the PWD. He along with a woman patter, Wajiha Begum, a resident of I-10/1, started hiring houses on bogus documents, the report said.

The accused established an office in the name of Friends Property at Shehbaz Market, I-10/1, in 1990-91 and hired some unemployed youth to trace out those houses in Islamabad and Rawalpindi whose owners were either selling their property or were abroad. He also searched for those owners of houses who could be pursued for bogus hiring.