LAHORE: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Tuesday told an accountability court that the bureau’s chairman did not approve Rs16 billion plea bargain with the owner of the Eden Housing Scheme following the objections raised by the affectees of the housing scam.

Special Prosecutor Hafiz Asadullah Awan stated the NAB chairman, during his last week visit to Lahore office, had a meeting with the scam affectees.

He said the affectees told the chairman that the amount of the plea bargain proposed by the accused party was not enough to compensate their losses.

The prosecutor said the NAB chairman accepted the request of the affectees and directed the accused party to finalise a plea bargain of at least Rs25bn.

At this, presiding judge Sheikh Sajjad Ahmad directed accused Anjum Amjad, wife of the scheme’s late owner Dr Muhammad Amjad, to finalise the plea bargain with the NAB by June 2 and also furnish a time frame for the payments to the affectees.

The judge also dismissed a request of the accused person’s counsel for a longer adjournment.

During the case hearing, hundreds of affectees of the housing scam also gathered outside the court and chanted slogans against the NAB and the housing scheme owner.

The affectees said the project had been launched in 2009 and the Eden management had promised to hand over plots to them in three and a half years.

They claimed that the NAB’s assessment of the Eden’s assets was on the lower side (Rs25bn) which should have been Rs40bn.

Published in Dawn, May 25th, 2022