September 21, 2007	Friday	Ramazan 08, 1428

GUJRANWALA, Sept 20: Sibtul Hassan Shah, alias Double Shah, who is in the custody of National Accountability Bureau (Nab) for running a parallel banking system has vowed he would return every penny he received from the general public within six months if he is released.

Talking to Dawn after appearing before the local anti-terrorism court here on Thursday, Shah said he had submitted a plea bargain petition to the Nab chairman while officials of the bureau had orally directed him to deposit Rs5.30 billion.

He said around 4,200 claims worth Rs5.75 billion had been deposited by the people against him. On the contrary, he said, Nab and police had forfeited his agricultural and residential properties, CNG and petrol filling stations besides freezing bank accounts and other assets all worth several billions of rupees.

He demanded that his assets and money should be returned to him so that he could return the money. He offered Nab to take into account the total worth of his assets and give him six months to repay his liabilities.

He said he wanted to launch a micro-finance system with the support of his aides and claimed that his plan was better than the one launched by Dr Younas in Bangladesh under which minimum income of each family could reach Rs12,000 per month.

He said he had got prepared a feasibility for setting up a medical college in Gujranwala before his arrest. But, it could not be executed, he lamented. He said his depositors were facing a great deal of inconvenience following his arrest.

Earlier, police produced him before the anti-terrorism court No2 along with his accomplices Ibrar Hussain, Imtiaz Hussain and Muhammad Shahid. The court indicted them and adjourned proceedings till Sept 26.

ELECTRIFICATION: The Gujranwala electric power company (Gepco) claimed to have achieved the target of electrifying 271 more villages, costing Rs121.28 million, and successfully meeting its objective of power for all programme. It also claimed that there was no village now that was not yet electrified in the region.

Gepco chief executive Rana Muhammad Ashraf Zahid stated this while speaking at a meeting at company’s headquarters office on GT Road here on Thursday.

He said 33,000 more consumers of Gujranwala, Gujrat, Sialkot, Narowal, Hafizabad and Mandi Bahauddin districts had been added to the Gepco’s network.

He expressed hope that agriculturalists and industrialists could put the country on the road to progress and prosperity

by enhancing agricultural and industrial produce in the region.