LAHORE, Jan 11: Punjab National Accountability Bureau Director-General Maj-Gen Muhammad Masood Aslam has said that the bureau has completed total payback of deposits of up to Rs0.5 million of seven/eight cooperatives and will start full refund of deposits up to Rs1 million soon.

Addressing the cooperatives scam affectees before distribution of cheques worth Rs152.7 million among 1,650 victims at Chamba House here on Tuesday, he said that majority of them were being paid back more than half of their deposits.

He said 1,500 to 1,700 coop scam victims were being paid their money back after every 30 to 40 days for the past seven months and all the depositors were expected to be paid back their total money by the end of this year.

He said the previous government had failed to recover the money of the coop victims but the present regime was recovering and paying it back to them under the directions of President General Pervez Musharraf. Recovery and refund of the deposits had been made possible due to the efforts of the Punjab Cooperative Board for Liquidation and the Punjab NAB.

Punjab Cooperative Board for Liquidation Chairman Muhammad Farooq Maan said nearly Rs2 billion had been paid back to about 30,000 affectees since the starting of the payback process on July 5, 2001.

He said some of the 1,650 affectees receiving cheques were getting their total deposits back. The chairman said that response to the advertisements calling upon the affectees to file their claims was decreasing because most of them were receiving their money back.

Talking to journalists after the cheque-distribution ceremony, Mr Masood Aslam said recoveries from forex companies were being delayed because most of them had gone to the courts. He said there was a marked decrease in corruption at higher levels on account of the accountability process started by the present government.