LAHORE: An accountability court on Tuesday directed the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to finalise a plea bargain of Rs16 billion with the owner of Eden Housing Scheme and submit the document on April 28.

Presiding Judge Sajjad Ahmad also extended pre-arrest bail of Anjum Amjad, wife of scheme’s owner the late Dr Muhammad Amjad, till the next hearing.

The judge observed that those affected by the housing scam could challenge the plea bargain before the Lahore High Court if they had any objection to it.

Affected people reject the move

Hundreds of affectees of the housing scam gathered outside the accountability court and chanted slogans against the NAB and the housing scheme owner. They rejected the move saying the trivial amount could not compensate their loss. They said the 12,000 affectees had deposited their hard-earned money with the Eden management for getting plots. They said the cost of the land had increased manifold and the depositors could not get a plot with this meagre sum.

The affectees said the project had been launched in 2009 and the Eden management had promised to hand over plots in three and a half years. They claimed that the NAB’s assessment of the Eden assets’ was on the lower side (Rs25bn) which should have been Rs40bn.

In September 2018, the Federal Investigation Agency had arrested Murtaza in Dubai. However, he was set at liberty owing to unavailability of sufficient evidence against him. The properties owned by Eden are worth Rs22 billion.

Published in Dawn, April 20th, 2022