LAHORE, July 17: The National Accountability Bureau, Punjab, has filed a reference against six Qureshi Welfare Society officials in the accountability court for collecting Rs24.32 million from 1,787 people and misappropriating the amount. Three of the accused have been arrested.

According to the reference, accused Gulzar Husain, Imran Saeed, Babar Saeed, Riaz Husain, Imdad Husain and Qaiser Nadeem had the society registered with Registrar Joint Stock Companies, Lahore, on June 28, 2006, for establishing schools and dispensaries and providing financial assistance to widows, orphans, poor students and the needy people.

They also got Qureshi Consultants registered with the Security and Exchange Commission of Pakistan on Sept 13, 2006, for consultancy and advice on financial matters.The accused defrauded the public through leaflets and brochures to open accounts with Rs10,000 each for getting profit of Rs4,000 per month for 20 months.

The accused neither sought permission from the State Bank to act as a financial institution nor maintained proper account books.

No audit of the company was carried out either. The accused also gave coupon books to their agents in Hafizabad, Lahore, Jhang and Gujranwala to collect money from the public and deposit it in their accounts.

The money was later withdrawn and misappropriated by the accused who fled after winding up the fraudulent business in February, 2007.

The NAB arrested three accused Gulzar Husain, Imran Saeed and Babar Saeed while Riaz Husain, Imdad Husain and Qaiser Nadeem are still absconding.