Daily Times

LAHORE: Though the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) claims to have reimbursed all those affected by the Elite Town real estate scam, several plot file holders still await full reimbursement of their payment.

Others also complain that they have been reimbursed after years but not on the market value of the land. They say NAB has paid them based on land values determined based on the deputy commissioner’s rate, which is significantly lower than the market value of the land that has doubled over the years.

Elite Town was advertised by Service Masters (Private) Limited back in 1991. The developer sold plot files to thousands of people.

One of the affected plot file holder, Saqlain Tauraiz, told Daily Times that he and his sister had bought files of five-marla plots from the market. He said the payment schedule was issued in their names after they cleared the sum paid to the developer by the previous file holder. Afterwards, he said, they started paying instalments.

“My sister Nabila Akhter paid Rs914,000 for the plot and Rs18,600 as stamp fee for transfer of plot.”

“We have spent our life’s savings on payments for the plot and the developers have yet to transfer possession to us. This is injustice. I request the Chief Minister of Punjab and the Chief Justice of Pakistan to take notice of this scam and deliver justice to us. They must direct officers concerned to deliver possession of plots to those who have paid for them. I have been written many applications to top government officers but to no avail.”

Tauraiz said that Service Master (Pvt) Limited was registered in the name of Faiz-ur-Rahim Khan, the chief executive officer.

He said numerous complaints were submitted to the NAB by plot file holders about the malpractices of the company. The developers tricked the public into parting with their hard-earned savings through advertisements in newspapers and made them buy plots on instalments. They collected around Rs95.58 million approximately through sale of plots during 1991-2014.

Documents available with Daily Times show that the society has been declared illegal by the Lahore Development Authority through a letter issued in 2015.

According to LDA documents, the housing scheme was declared illegal ‘after evaluation of the stance and documents provided by petitioner during and before the inquiry proceedings regarding ownership and approval of scheme. The sponsor could not produce approval letter for an area measuring 1,984 kanals or an approved layout plan of the same area. Further, the technical approval letter and layout plan of 3,830 kanals could not be verified from the district officer (SP), the City District Government-Lahore, the District Coordination Officer of Lahore and the Town Municipal Officer Nishtar Town. Furthermore, the concerned Town Planning Officer who was posted in Zila Council Lahore during that period and whose signature was on the approval letter and layout plan produced by sponsor has disowned these documents and has declared his signature as a fake. Despite the determination of criminal liability by NAB, he [the developer] is bound to provide plots to actual affectees as per an agreement between the purchaser and the sponsors.”

Copies of the letters in which the TMO’s signatures have been faked and in which the TMO has clarified that his stance are available with Daily Times.

According to the TMO’s letter addressed to the Chief Metropolitan Planner LDA, with the subject ‘Verification of Approval Record of Elite Town Housing Scheme’, after a meeting held in the office of the Chief Metropolitan Planner LDA in December 2014, “the copies of approval letter from Zila Council Lahore and layout plan measuring an area of 3,830 Kanal of Elite Town have been examined. In this regard, it is submitted that during the said time period, the undersigned was posted as Town Planning Officer in Zila Council Lahore. The undersigned did not approve the subject scheme and signature of undersigned on approval letter and layout plan are fake. Information about this has already been submitted to the District Officer (SP).”

Another victim of the scheme, Dr Nuzhat Parvez, while talking to Daily Times, said, “I purchased a 10-marla plot file in G-Block on instalments in 2010. I followed all legal procedures, but Elite Town has yet to give me the plot. They even threatened me when I approached them for possession. Eventually, they agreed to pay back my money in three instalments. I have been able to encash two of the cheques but the third has still not been encashed,” he said, sharing a copy of the third cheque issued by the NIB Bank New Garden Town branch.

When a call was made to the Elite Town landline number, the telephone operator said no officer privy to details of plot files was available to speak. An officer was later contacted on cell phone number. He refused comment.

A NAB spokesperson said that the bureau had cleared the payments of all those affected in the case. He said that around Rs360.5 million had been distributed among approximately 450 claimants from Sep 2017 to Feb 2018.

To a query about the rate at which reimbursements were made, he said the bureau had followed the Karachi Interbank Offered Rate (KIBOR).

Published in Daily Times, March 21^th 2018.