KARACHI, March 2: Shahida Farooq, chairperson of the Shahida Welfare Trust, has made appealed to the President of Pakistan and the chairman of the National Accountability Bureau to order immediate distribution of the accumulated Rs290 million among the victims of the finance companies fraud.

At a press conference at Karachi Press Club on Saturday, the SWT chief said the victims of the finance companies scam should be returned their money on the same pattern as was adopted in the case of the victims of the cooperative scam in Punjab.

She said the process could begin in the light of the recommendations made by the relief committee formed in 1997-98.

Ms Shahida, who was a member of the special committee formed by the then government, recalled that in 1987—88 these fraud companies had been banned by the State Bank and an investigation been ordered against them under banking laws.

She said out of the 103 companies, 31 had been found involved in fraud and 35 cases been registered against them.

In 1993, she pointed out, a committee consisting of about one dozen MNAs and headed by a former MNA, gathered details of the victims and of confiscated properties and assets of the companies. The committee held several meetings.

She said most of the properties could not be confiscated as these were in the names of different people, and legal complications made auctioning of the confiscated properties difficult.

She said the committee completed its tenure while resolving such issues. However, the victims were yet to get relief.

Ms Farooq said, in June 1997, the SWT took up this issue and the then government constituted a five-member committee, headed by a former financial adviser to the government of Sindh, Syed Sardar Ahmed, along with order for immediate action. A formal notification in this respect was issued in November 1997 and she was also nominated on the committee as a member.

This committee, she said, held two meetings in July and August. Syed Sardar Ahmed was also present at the press conference. — APP