NAB tells SHC no contempt committed in arrest of two housing scheme partners

The arrests of two partners of a real estate company involved in Rs18 billion Fazaia Housing Scheme scam have been made under the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Ordinance and no orders of the high court were violated in this regard.

A special prosecutor of NAB told this to the Sindh High Court (SHC) on Monday. Filing comments on a contempt of court application filed by the directors of a private company, Maxim Properties, against their arrests and freezing of accounts, the special prosecutor submitted that NAB was conducting an inquiry against the Fazaia Housing Scheme on the allegations of cheating public at large.

He submitted that the inquiry had revealed that the housing scheme was illegally launched in partnership with Maxim Properties in 2015 on illegally consolidated/adjusted land in deh Allah Phihai, taluka Shah Mureed in District Malir.

The NAB prosecutor submitted that as per its agreement with the Pakistan Air Force (PAF), the construction company sold out various units of the scheme to general public and collected billions of rupees in the name of booking, allotment and development of housing units of the said scheme; however, since 2015 the management of the Fazaia Housing Scheme neither had handed over the plots to whom they had been allotted not had completed any significant development work as a result of which, the general public stood cheated of their finances. He submitted that the construction company’s directors, Tanveer Ahmed and his son Bilal Tanveer, were signatories to an agreement with PAF officials regarding the launch of the housing scheme and selling its units to general public.

The prosecutor alleged that the petitioners with connivance of other co-accused persons had collected Rs18 billion from 6,000 affected persons of the fraudulent scheme.

The SHC was informed that the petitioners were arrested on December 28 and an accountability court granted their 10-day remand for investigations. The NAB prosecutor submitted that the arrests were made in accordance with the law and no contempt of the court had been committed as NAB had exercised its authority strictly in accordance with the law.

He submitted that the petitioners had not been granted bail by a court of law so the arrests of the petitioners did not come within the ambit of contempt of court. He requested the high court to dismiss the petitions. The SHC, after taking the comments of NAB on record, adjourned the hearing till January 16.

The petitioners had filed a contempt of court application against their arrests and freezing of accounts by NAB. Their counsel submitted that they had filed civil litigation against PAF for breach of agreement which was pending adjudication and in addition to that, the SHC on December 3 had restrained NAB from taking any coercive action against the petitioners. They submitted that despite that restraining order, NAB had arrested them and directed their bank to freeze their bank accounts.

Remand extended

Meanwhile, the administrative judge of the accountability courts on Monday remanded the two directors of the Maxim Properties in the custody of NAB for 10 more days for interrogation regarding the allegations of defrauding over 6,000 people in the housing scheme, adds our correspondent.

The anti-graft watchdog presented Tanveer and Bilal, the chief executive officer and chief operating officer of the real estate marketing group, before the judge, contending that their custody was further required since the investigations with them had not been completed.