LAHORE: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has arrested the owner of the Formanites Housing Scheme for a scam worth Rs1.5 billion for allegedly ‘cheating public at large’.

The NAB had been probing the matter for a couple of years and arrested Zahoor Ahmad Wattoo after no agreement was reached between them on the amount against the claims of the affected persons filed with the bureau.

“A NAB team arrested Zahoor Wattoo, also a co-owner of a private news channel, on Thursday in Lahore and will produce him before an accountability court on Friday (today) to obtain his physical remand,” a NAB Lahore spokesman told Dawn.

He said the action against the suspect had been taken as per law.

“Mr Wattoo and other suspects had joined the investigation but they were reluctant to return the amount to the complainants,” he said, adding more than 1,100 people had filed complaints against the owners of the housing society in question.

“The suspects launched the Formanites Housing Scheme in 1997 and lured the general public to invest/purchase plots in it. They committed massive illegalities. The number of plots sold out to the general public was far greater than those existed in the approved plan. Moreover, there were frequent instances of duplication and cancellation of plots without any justification and plausible reason. Further, land reserved for amenities was illegally transformed into residential and commercial plots and sold out to the general public,” the NAB spokesman said.

According to most of the complaints, the society management had sold a number of plots at Phase-II which were “non-existent”.

The society also resold several pledged plots, and the plots of those who had defaulted.

The NAB further said the complainants were forced to pay excessive development charges.

“In 2003-04, the suspects illegally started booking and selling plots in Phase-II of the housing scheme for which no land was specified in the first place and continued with the practice recklessly over a long period. Thus they deprived the general public of their money and used the ill-gotten money for their personal gains,” the bureau said and also pointed out that the suspects amassed “huge assets and utilised the money to open new ventures,” the spokesman said.

The NAB official said if the suspect did not pledge to return the money to the affected people, it might file a reference against him and others.

Published in Dawn, October 9th, 2015

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