LAHORE: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Saturday admitted a plea bargain request by the absconding owner of the Eden Garden Housing Limited and forwarded it for approval to the chairman.

If approved, it will be the biggest bargain in the housing sector in the country in which over more 11,000 people are affected. The Lahore NAB admitted the plea bargain worth Rs13bn in a meeting here with NAB Director General Shahzad Saleem in the chair. According to an official, initially, Eden Housing owner Dr Amjad, who absconded to Canada in 2018, would deposit Rs1 billion with the bureau to be immediately handed over to the affected people.

“The remaining Rs12bn would be delivered within three years. If NAB Chairman retired Justice Javed Iqbal approves the proposal, Dr Amjad will return Pakistan to fulfill the deal,” a source said. Eden Housing owners Dr Amjad and his sons, Dr Murtaza Amjad and Mustafa Amjad, had fled to Canada in 2018 after the Ministry of Interior did not place their names on the Exit Control List despite NAB’s request. Subsequently, NAB seized property of the Eden Garden Housing Limited worth more than Rs15bn and announced that it would soon start compensating the affected people.

The PTI government had given hope to the affected people of retrieving their hard-earned money when the Federal Investigation Agency arrested Dr Murtaza Amjad, also the son-in-law of former chief justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, in Dubai with the help of Interpol in 2019. Later, Dr Murtaza was released of late in Dubai as the PTI government failed to provide any evidence required for bringing him back to Pakistan to put him on trial.

Published in Dawn, April 25th, 2021