Housing scam victims to get money given to NAB by suspects
PESHAWAR: A local accountability court on Saturday ordered the distribution among the affected persons of around Rs63.4 million returned to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) by a former Nowshera district nazim and three other suspects as voluntary return in a housing society scam.
Judge Tariq Yousafzai also ordered the de-freezing of former nazim Dawood Khattak’s bank account, which was frozen on the orders of the NAB Khyber Pakhtunkhwa director general during inquiry into the scam.
The court issued the order after NAB special prosecutor Danyal Asad Chamkani confirmed that the NAB chairman had accepted the voluntary return pleas of Dawood Khattak, Dilawar, Nawab and Hikmatullah.
The prosecutor said the suspects had returned Rs63.4 million, which they had allegedly received from 238 people in Nowshera district.
The NAB Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had received a complaint from several affected persons including Dr Aurangzeb and others on Feb 29, 2012, following which an inquiry was approved on April 16, 2013.
The NAB had claimed that the former nazim, Dawood Khattak, was the managing director of a firm, Khushal Associates, and that he along with other suspects had launched the housing scheme by the name of Khushal Gardens. However, after receiving money from general public, the suspects had neither allotted plots to applicants nor returned the deposited money to them.
The bank account of Dawood Khattak had around Rs18.7 million. The chief suspect requested the court that after the acceptance of his voluntary return application, the de-freezing of his bank account should be ordered.
Under the National Accountability Ordinance 1999, the NAB chairman is empowered to accept an offer of a suspect if he voluntarily offers to return the assets or gains acquired or made by him in the course, or as the consequence, of any offence under the ordinance.
The voluntary return provision of the law does not make a public officeholder disqualified from holding the public office or contesting election for a public office.
Published in Dawn, September 13th, 2015
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