MULTAN, Sept 30: The government will do effective legislation to refrain ‘fraudulent companies’ from plundering the hard-earned money of common people in the cover of high profit ratio.

This was stated by Punjab Liquidation Board Secretary Brig Muhammad Mann while talking to newsmen here on Monday. He was in the town on the Punjab governor’s direction for taking stock of the situation owing to the ‘madad committee’ financial scam.

Mr Mann said the government had taken a strict notice of the situation and the Multan district administration had been directed to ensure repayment to every victim.

He said a committee headed by Multan EDO (finance) Muhammad Khan Kitchi had been constituted to settle the accounts of the victims.

Lists were being prepared and all the victims would be compensated, he said and added that investors were being categorized as small, medium and big for this purpose. However, he said the government would ensure only the reimbursement of their principal amount.

He also urged the people not to throw their hard-earned income in the investment schemes based on flimsy profit ratios. Even the country’s big business houses could not offer such an unrealistic profit ratio of 45 per cent, he said.

Present on the occasion, DPO Hamid Mukhtar Gondal said that 80 per cent of the madad committee record had been taken into custody.

Meanwhile, a few hundred victims assembled near the district courts early in the day as a local Urdu daily had published a baseless news item that payments to the affected people would be made at the district Nazim office.

As they came to know the reality, they became unruly, chanted slogans against the police and burnt used tyres at the Kutchery Chowk.

Later, the angry mob entered the nearby Civil Lines College and damaged its furniture and grounds. They also tried to enter classrooms, but dispersed when police resorted to mild baton charge.

People filed claims on the last date of submission against some 600,000 shares of the committee having total worth Rs200 million. On the other hand, police reportedly arrested four more people in connection with the madad committee scam.