GUJRAT, Dec 7: Several claimants affected by the National Industrial Cooperative Finance Corporation scam have to face a lot of problems in getting their claims verified from two offices of the Punjab Cooperatives Board for Liquidation (PCBL) in Gujrat and Lahore, it is learnt.

The third phase of payment of up to Rs200,000 will be made on Dec 8 (today). A sum of Rs60 million will be distributed among claimants of Gujrat and Mandi Bahauddin districts.

Several affectees of Gujrat and Mandi Bahauddin districts said whenever they had contacted PCBL's Gujrat offices for verification of their claims, they were advised to recourse to the Lahore office. But the men at Lahore office sent them back, saying that their record was with the Gujrat office, they alleged.

A claimant on the condition of anonymity told Dawn that he had thrice visited the two offices for the verification of the claim, but to no avail.

A spokesman of the Gujrat office said “we have been accepting claims of those affected who bring their genuine documents, i.e undertaking, original SMR/pass book, claim deposit receipt, succession certificate if claimant has expired, NIC photocopy, while payments shall be made to them on prorata basis.”

He said his office had detected six cases where succession certificates or powers of attorney were found fake. “The staff has cleared all the cases on merit and after a thorough scrutiny”, he added.

Meanwhile, in fourth step of phase-I, the government will pay to over 500 cooperative affectees in Faisalabad, Gujranwala and Sargodha on Saturday.

The disbursement ceremony in Faisalabad will be held at 9:30am at the Punjab Medical College Hall, while the Sargodha ceremony will be held at Jinnah Hall.