LAHORE: National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Lahore will file a reference against the owners and administration of the Eden Housing Project.

Those nominated in the reference included Dr Amjad, Murtaza Amjad, Mustafa Amjad and Anam Amjad.

The filing of the reference was approved during a Regional Board meeting chaired by NAB Lahore Director General Saleem Shahzad. It will be forwarded to the NAB headquarters for final approval and filed before the accountability court after the approval by NAB chairman Javed Iqbal.

The suspects had collected Rs18.9 billion from public through fraud and fled the country. The NAB had requested the Interior Ministry to place their names on the Exit Control List (ECL).

In September last, the FIA had arrested Murtaza Amjad in Dubai. However, he was set at liberty owing to unavailability of sufficient evidence. The scandal was unearthed in 2013.

The properties owned by Eden were worth Rs22 billion. These included 333 kanal at Mauza Baghrian and Dharmachand, 404 kanal, four-marla commercial land in Edenabad, Defence Road, 111 commercial plots in Eden Housing, a plaza in Eden Tower, Main Boulevard, Gulberg, eight commercial plots in Eden Canal Villas, two commercial plots measuring four kanal each in Eden City near Lahore airport, two plots measuring 10 marla each in Eden City, 26 commercial plots in Eden Residentia, College Road, and eight-kanal luxury bungalow on Canal Bank Road. Besides, the group has five-marla land at Mauza Tamma in Islamabad.

Mr Shahzad said the regulators were responsible for causing financial loss and mental torture to the public. He said there was a need that the rules and regulations for development authorities and real estate agents are made stringent.

Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2019