LAHORE, March 4: Seventy-five-year old Ghulam Haider was among the 100 or so victims of the Double Shah financial scam who were denied entry to the cheque-distribution ceremony by the National Accountability Bureau at Chamba House on Tuesday.

A grandson brought Haider from his Raja Rapal village in border area of Sialkot to the city bus stand by a motorcycle around 4am. After half an hour, Haider was heading towards Lahore by a wagon which dropped him at Badami Bagh around 6:30am from where he hired a rickshaw to reach Chamba House.

“Unfortunately, a tyre of the rickshaw punctured near GPO Chowk and I reached Chamba House at 7:15am, only to know that I cannot get in because I was late by 15 minutes,” Haider told this reporter outside the NAB office while showing the claim receipt and the letter issued by the bureau. Haider had handed over Rs50,000 to Syed Sibtul Hasan alias Double Shah. The NAB had issued letters to some 500 victims of the scam, directing them to reach Chamba House at 7am on March 4 to get partial payment against their claims, though the cheque-distribution ceremony was to start at 11:30am.

Jabbar, Mustafa, Abid and Zulfikar from Wazirabad, Aslam Zahid and Majid from Daska, Zafar and Yousaf from Sambrial, Shakoor and Asghar from Gujrat too were not allowed to go inside the Chamba House because they were 20 to 30 minutes late than the time given in the NAB letter.

They said many of their relatives, friends and acquaintances – at least a dozen accompanying each of them – returned to their hometowns after the NAB officials rudely treated them.

Bushra Begum and M. Boota of Wazirabad and Qamar Iqbal of Gujrat were lucky enough to get in, though they too were late. Bushra obtained a Rs21,000 cheque against her claim of Rs890,000, Boota Rs66,800 against his claim of Rs966,000.

Two brothers of Wazirabad said they had collected Rs30 million from relatives and friends and handed it over to Syed Alamdar Shah, a cousin of Double Shah. “Before the NAB announcement that the victims will be getting partial payments, Alamdar Shah was in touch with us, giving us assurances that once Double Shah Ji would return, we’ll get our money.

“Like us, at least 60 per cent victims of the scam have not filed claims with the NAB on the assurances of Double Shah’s agents like Chaudhry Israr Cheema, Ehsan Ranjha, Nasir Bhutta and Sheikh Karamat. But now they all have disappeared mysteriously,” the two brothers claimed.