Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The housing society of the Overseas Pakistanis Foundation (OPF) is giving the looks of ancient ruins even after a lapse of two decades.

The OPF made the housing society for overseas Pakistanis in Zone-V of Islamabad covering thousands of kanals of land, and the foundation had spent billions of rupees taken from potential residents, but after 20 years the society is deprived of drinking water. Now the society has decided to purchase six kanals for the provision of water.

The prime minister has decided to initiate a probe into corruption of billions of rupees in the OPF Housing Society through the NAB and the FIA, and it is very much possible that a committee under the Interior Ministry might be formed for this purpose.

The sources in the OPF told Daily Times that when the housing society was started, the land was procured at the rate of some thousands per kanal, which was sold out to overseas Pakistanis.

The contract of land development was awarded to the FWO, which took a hefty amount from the OPF but did nothing except killing the time.

The housing society proved to be a goldmine for the big bosses of the OPF. When the NAB took former director of the society into its custody, he escaped punishment by paying Rs 10 million under a plea bargain. The NAB had clearly instructed the authorities concerned to terminate his services, but no managing director complied with the orders.

Now, the former director has established a private office of property dealing in the building of the OPF.

A few months back, when the Supreme Court gave a verdict in the plea bargain case, it became compulsory for the department to remove him from service.

A former MD has signed a contract with a private housing society, under which the OPF gave hundreds of kanals of land to it, which was actually purchased from the pockets of overseas Pakistanis. The FIA has started an investigation in this regard.