Combating public frauds

Punjab was rocked by the worst ever-private financial scam in 2006/2007, the Double Shah Fraud case. Syed Sibt-ul Hassan Gillani, alias Double Shah, his family members, three other independent groups and hundreds of agents and subagents operating in Wazirabad, Gujarat, Sialkot and Sahiwal in 2006, lured about 40,000 persons into depositing about Rs 10.0 billion with promise to double the deposits initially in 15 days. After building public confidence, large cash inflow from new depositors was used to double the money of the earlier ones, hence the game was sustained for over a year. In the process almost Rs 3 billion were siphoned off to Dubai for purchase of real estate.

Double Shah and many other key accused are in jail facing References in Accountability Courts. About Rs 1.5 billion have been recovered. Since March 2008, Rs 530 million have been returned to almost 10,000 direct investors with verified claims as a first instalment.

Never before in the history of Pakistan has money looted from the general public been recovered from the plunderers and returned to the rightful claimants. Never before has the state prosecuted the masterminds and perpetrators of public frauds to secure the rights of the robbed.

In addition to our Enforcement operations against public frauds, NAB has also focused on creating mass awareness against this menace. We believe that an alert and vigilant society will be less vulnerable to frauds. Our awareness campaign includes periodic anti-fraud advertisements in the print media, programmes on FM channels and poster campaigns. We acknowledge the media’s contribution in this respect and look forward to their continued support in future as well.

During a recent seminar on Public Frauds organised by NAB Punjab in Lahore, esteemed speakers from media and civil society including luminaries like Mr Arif Nizami, Editor The Nation and Mr Amjad Islam Amjad, deliberated on various facets of public frauds. At the outset, Maj Shahnawaz Badar (retd) DG NAB Punjab, raised a few pertinent questions. Why do mega public scams surface frequently in Punjab only? Why do such scams occur particularly in areas between Jhelum and Lahore?

Some of the salient conclusions of the seminar were:

»    Accountability in Pakistan must be across the board and even-handed

»    The Big Fish behind all national level frauds must also be brought to justice