Eden Garden Housing Scheme Victims Rejected Rs16bn Plea Bargain Deal

Lahore: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) representative on Thursday told the accountability court that the outgoing chairman of NAB retired justice Javed Iqbal has approved a plea bargain amounting to Rs 16 billion with the management of the Eden Garden Housing Scheme. Hundreds of the affectees of the scam gathered around the court and termed the decision as unfair and unjust in every respect. Earlier in a meeting with the affectees, the chairman Nab had assured the affectees that the plea bargain amount would be around 25 billion. In an earlier hearing, the NAB prosecutor had also told the court that the compensation amount would be Rs 25 billion as directed by the chairman.

Surinsingly enough, on Thursday the Nab prosecutor revealed to the court that the compensation to the affectees would be Rs 16 billion rather than Rs 25 billion. He also informed that the accused would pay the said amount to the affectees in a three-year time period and that the accused, Anjum Amjad, widow of Dr. Amjad would not leave the country until the amount is fully paid to the affectees. housing scam that was uncovered in 2013. The owners of the society had collected more than Rs25 billion from the public.

Advocate Zubair khan speaking on behalf of the affectees argued that there are 11,888 affected people and the compensation amount is not acceptable at any cost. He argued that the project was launched in 2009 and the cost of the project was Rs 16 billion some 13 years back. He said that as per NAB evaluation, the project cost in 2019 was Rs 27 billion. He also argued that the current value of the project s Rs 75 billion is the prevailing market price so a deal of merely Rs 16 billion is not acceptable at all.