ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) may not be able to recover a major chunk of billions of rupees lost by investors as a result of Modaraba and Musharika (Islamic investment) scams.
According to sources, the bureau has arrested over 20 suspects in several Modaraba scams but is finding it difficult to recover from them the amount plundered by them.
According to NAB’s estimates, over Rs50 billion has been looted in 81 cases of cheating through illegal Modaraba and Musharika businesses.
But the bureau’s proceedings have slowed down and no significant recovery has been made in recent months.
A NAB official said on Sunday that one of the accused, Ghulam Rasool Ayubi, who ran a grocery store chain called ‘Mezban’ in various cities, had deprived people of over Rs10bn, but the bureau appeared helpless in recovering the amount.
NAB had arrested Mr Ayubi but he recently got bail from a court.
“The accused claims that he has no money to return to the investors,” the official said.
The number of victims in the 81 cases is said to be over 50,000.
NAB spokesman Nawazish Ali Asim said the bureau had recovered Rs1.87bn, but he was reluctant to provide details of the amount plundered.
However, he rejected a perception that no recovery had been made during the past few months and said the bureau had also seized 4,500 kanals of land and 13 luxurious vehicles from the accused.
He said NAB had filed six references in various accountability courts and arrested 26 main accused, including Mufti Ehsanul Haq, Mufti Ibrarul Haq, Hafiz Mohammad Nawaz, Moeen Aslam, Obaidullah, Mufti Shabbir Ahmad Usmani, Sajjad Ahmed, Asif Javed, Ghulam Rasool Ayubi, Mohammad Hussain Ahmed, Hamid Nawaz, Muhammad Irfan, Bilal Khan Bangash, Matiur Rehman, Mohammad Numan Qureshi, Syed Aksheed Hussain, Mohammad Adil Butt, Mohammad Saqib, Umair Ahmed and Khan Mohammad.
Over 40 Muftis and Khateebs of mosques in various cities were found to be involved in the scams as they misused their position to persuade people to invest in the fake businesses instead of banks.
Published in Dawn, January 19th, 2015
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