ISLAMABAD, Nov 20: National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Thursday handed over the administrative control of a private housing scheme -- Jeddah Town -- to Capital Development Authority (CDA) after the management of the scheme was found involved in fake allotment of plots.

The decision to hand over the scheme to the CDA was taken at a meeting held at NAB Headquarters which was presided over by its Chairman Nawid Ahsan and attended by CDA Chairman Tariq Mehmood Khan.

The NAB chairman said the decision was aimed at protecting the money of the investors, mostly overseas Pakistanis and developing the plots. The land scam was unearthed a few months ago.

Jeddah Town Housing Scheme in Zone-V Islamabad was located along Islamabad Highway.

NAB Investigations revealed that the CDA issued No-Objection Certificate (NOC) for Phase-I of the housing scheme consisting of 293 kanals in 1993 and 507 kanals were added into the scheme in 1994.

Later, in 2002 the builders of the scheme, Gilani Housing Corporation submitted a revised layout plan for 1200 kanals which was rejected by the CDA suspecting some fraud in the revised plan.

The owners of the scheme instead of developing it started selling files of the plots to overseas Pakistanis living in Saudi Arabia, United Kingdom and United Arab Emirates.The investigations said the accused misappropriated the amount they fraudulently obtained as full payment of the developed plots from more than 927 members of the scheme.The firm was bound to develop the scheme in three years but it could not do so even after 13 years.

In another case, the management of Gilani Housing Corporation defrauded about 4,750 plot seekers and collected Rs666 million for phase-II extension in Humak.

The owner of the scheme Makhdoom Gillani and other accused were arrested by the NAB in December 2006.

A source in the CDA told Dawn that the owner of the scheme had purchased 1,000 kanals against which he had sold thousands of plots. It has been learnt that out of 1,000 kanals, the management had developed only 300 kanals.

CDA to auction of plots:The Authority is likely to generate around Rs3 billion from the auction of 46 residential, commercial, industrial and orchard farm plots in the upcoming auction to be held on November 24-25.

Official in Directorate Estate Management said that 46 plots, including residential, commercial, industrial and orchard farm, would be put up for open auction to be held on November 24-25 at the Aabpara Community Centre.

Two plots measuring 555sq yards and two measuring 600sq yard in Sector F-10/2, one plot measuring 1,000sq yards in Sector F-11/4, four plots measuring 400sq yards each in Sector F-11/4, 12 plots measuring 355sq yard each in Sector G-10/3, and six plots measuring 166 sq yard each in Sector I-10/2 would be auctioned, they said.

On the commercial side two plots measuring 1,770 sq yard in Markaz G-11 while one plot measuring 1,066 sq yards will be auctioned in Markaz I-8.

One huge plot measuring 4,363 sq yard will be up for auction in Sector I-11/4. A small plot for a shop measuring 26 sq yard will also be available in Sector I-11/4.