KARACHI, Feb 15, 2019: National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has unearthed cases against 53 Cooperative Societies involved in fraud and cheating.
Director General NAB Karachi on Friday chaired a full board meeting to review of cases under inquiries and investigation that pertain to housing scams.
It was apprised by the Directors of Investigation Wings that the highest number of cases related to housing scams pertained to Cooperative Housing schemes, majority of which are located in Karachi.
There are total 53 such cases of various cooperative societies in which thousands of people from public at large have been deprived of their rightful titles of properties by way of fraud and cheating perpetrated by office holders of societies in connivance with regulators and officials of Sindh Cooperation Department.
Out of 53 such cases, 12 are under inquiries, 19 under advanced stage of investigation; whereas 22 References are under trial at Accountability Courts of Karachi and Hyderabad. Out of these cases, 44 societies are located in Karachi whereas 9 in Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas, Jamshoro etc.
It was also apprised that weak regulation on the part of Government authorities and poor legal framework has exacerbated the state of affairs which leads to enormous number of complaints pouring in at NAB against Cooperative Societies.
DG NAB issued directions to the Combined Investigation Teams (CITs) to expedite the cases, recover the lands and restore to their rightful owners as early as possible in order to allay the plight of the poor people seeking shelter out of their hard earned money.
DG NAB also issued directions to Awareness & Prevention (A&P) Wing to engage with Cooperation Department Government of Sindh pursuing measures on their part to prevent more offences in Cooperative Societies and take stringent actions against delinquent Registrars, Assistant Registrars and Administrators involved in irregularities and conniving with land grabbers.