LAHORE, Oct 11: The National Accountability Bureau-Punjab on Thursday launched the third round of payments to the cooperatives scam victims.

About 3,500 depositors would be paid Rs120 million during this phase, NAB sources said.

Maj-Gen Muhammad Sabir, the NAB-P chief distributed checks among about 900 victims at Aiwan-i-Iqbal here. Writer Ashfaq Ahmad and Kinnaird College principal Mira Phailbus were also present on the occasion.

The remaining 2,600 victims, who belong to Rawalpindi, Multan, Sargodha, Faisalabad and Sialkot districts, would be paid at the respective district headquarters on Saturday.

Gen Sabir recalled that about 250,000 people had lost Rs13 billion in the scam. He said about Rs8 billion out of this amount could not be recovered as most of the cooperatives had made large investments in real estate. When the companies collapsed, the value of real estate nose-dived wiping out bulk of their assets. Also, he said some of the cooperatives’ assets had not been formally transferred in their name.

Gen Sabir said the NAB had so far sold cooperatives’ assets worth about Rs500 million. He said it expected to raise another Rs4 billion by selling properties of owners and directors of these companies.

The Rs2 billion bank loans used to pay some of the victims, he said, had become a Rs3.8 billion liability. The NAB was now asking the banks to write off the mark-up.

The NAB, its chief said believed that of the Rs9 billion claims only Rs8 billion could be substantiated.

Brig Farooq Maan of NAB told Dawn payments were being made in accordance with the directions of the Lahore High Court.

He said the NAB was currently paying the depositors whose claims were less than Rs200,000. Those who had deposited up to Rs50,000 had already been paid. He said Rs50,000 were being paid to those who had deposited up to Rs100,000.

Half the deposited amount was being paid to those who had deposited between Rs100,000 and Rs200,000.

The NAB plans to make the payments in four phases. Currently, the first phase is underway. The next phase would start from Jan 1, 2002, and last till June 30.