June 25, 2008	Wednesday	Jamadi-us-Sani 20, 1429

PESHAWAR, June 24: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has directed developers to wind up illegal housing societies within a month.

In view of the growing complaints about the rapid increase in illegal housing societies in the NWFP, a high-level meeting in this regard was held here on Tuesday.

Director-General NAB Mohammad Jamshed Khan presided over the meeting. Despite other concerned officials, it was attended by the district coordination officers (DCOs), district returning officers (DROs) and tehsil municipal officers (TMOs) of Peshawar, Nowshera and Mardan.

The prime objective of the meeting was to draw attention of the concerned departments to the rapid expansion of illegal housing societies in Peshawar, Nowshera and Mardan districts.

According to a survey conducted by the NAB, 82 housing societies in Peshawar, seven in Mardan and 16 were detected in Nowshera. In accordance with the Local Government Ordinance 2005, no society was entitled to publish advertisements in the newspapers unless it owned 160 kanals of land and NOC of the concerned government department.

On the occasion, the director-general NAB directed the concerned departments to remove illegal billboards from Peshawar, Mardan and Nowshera within one month. Moreover, he asked the TMOs to arrange a meeting for the training of the housing society developers on monthly basis. The meeting also asked for convening a meeting of secretary local governments and the concerned departments to remove legal complications in the local government ordinance.

Similarly, it directed the regulatory authorities to set up their websites in order to inform the general public about the details of the regular and irregular housing societies. It asked for publishing annual reports of all developers besides directing housing societies to set up their websites having all relevant information.

The meeting asked the housing societies to prepare their brochures that carried information about their directors, chief executives, registration letters, NOC, occupied land, developmental work, building and refund schedules.

Moreover, the housing societies were prohibited to use the name of public sector organisations. The meeting also recommended for annual audit of the housing societies.—APP