Court tells NAB to reply to plea against arrest of housing scheme’s directors

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Thursday directed the National Accountability Bureau to file comments on a petition against the arrest of two partners of a construction company involved in an Rs18 billion Fazaia Housing Scheme scam.

The directive came on a petition of Musarat Nazir against the illegal arrest of directors of the scheme by NAB. The petitioner’s counsel submitted that the SHC had restrained NAB from taking any coercive action against the directors, Tanvir Ahmed and Bilal Tanvir; however, despite the restraining order of the court, NAB had arrested them and obtained their remand from an accountability court even when the inquiry was in the initial stage.

He submitted that the arrests of the detainees by NAB were unlawful and they may be released forthwith. NAB’s special prosecutor sought time to file comments on the petition. NAB had earlier informed the court that the arrests of the detainees had been made under the National Accountability Bureau Ordinance and no orders of the high court had been violated in this regard.

NAB’s special prosecutor said the bureau was conducting an inquiry against the housing scheme on allegations of cheating public at large, and that the detainees’ remand was obtained from an accountability court.

A division bench headed by Justice Mohammad Karim Khan Agha directed NAB’s IO to submit a progress report along with the relevant record on January 28. The bureau had earlier filed in the comments 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, District Malir.

The NAB prosecutor submitted that as per the agreement with the force, 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 scheme; however, since 2015 the management of the scheme had neither handed over the plots to the allotees nor carried out any significant development work and as result general public stood cheated of their finances.

He submitted that construction company directors Tanveer Ahmed and his son Bilal Tanveer were also signatories to the agreement with PAF officials regarding the launching of the scheme and selling its units to general public, alleging that the petitioners in connivance with other co-accused persons had collected Rs18 billion from 6,000 people affected by this fraudulent scheme.

Orders for MDA

The SHC directed the Malir Development Authority, the deputy commissioner of Malir and the director of Maxim Properties to conduct themselves in accordance with the law on a petition of affected people, who moved the court for the constitution of a judicial commission to probe inquiry into the affairs of the scheme.

Petitioner Hasan Khalid Malik and others said they were allottees who were not being given possession of the land despite the payment of installments worth millions of rupees. They sought constitution of a judicial commission to inquire into the inordinate delay in the completion of the scheme, a forensic audit of accounts and the formation of a mechanism to ensure that public at large may not be cheated or defrauded in relation to their respective housing units in the scheme.