Listen to ICHS Scandal Summary in Audio Podcast
The real estate of Islamabad has been a growing sector due to its features. Recently a massive real estate fraud has been uncovered by regulatory authorities in Islamabad in Islamabad Cooperative Housing Society (ICHS). This is being called as the largest real estate fraud of Pakistan due to the fraud scale and the amount of money lost. Thousands of people with all their savings at risk are eager for answers. The ICHS scandal is now under investigation to find out the roots of the scam.
Illegal Sale of Extra Plot Files
So here is what happened in this fraud: the developers of the Islamabad Cooperative Housing Society (ICHS) applied for their Layout Plan (LOP) approval from the CDA. Looking at the LOP, CDA authorized the society to sell only 6000 plot files. The developers, on the other hand, disregarded the protocol and sold about 42,000 plot files.
Doing the basic math, it can be seen that almost 36,000 plot files which were sold were the ones which had no land associated with them. This simply meant that these were illegal files and the people who invested in them now have their Capital at risk.
Fake Plot Files
The extra files were sold in the following manner:
- Either the files sold were completely fake with no land associated
- Or duplicate files were sold. This means that for a single plot multiple files were generated and sold
Financial Scale of Fraud
The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) is carrying out the investigation of the ICHS scandal. The scam was uncovered through the discovery that several payment and allotment data were missing. As NAB continued the inquiry they have found out that the total monetary value linked to this fraud is an estimated 16 billion Rs. This is the amount known till date of the investigation and is expected to increase as experts claim the amount to be much larger.
Fraud Method
Looking into the evidence it can be said that the attempt was planned and systematic.
- Citizens were sold plot files that had no land linked to them. In some cases the plots files sold that actually were linked to a certain land did not require legal approval by the relevant authorities.
- The fake plot file details such as payment methods, accounts and documents were kept unrecorded.
Legal Action and Arrests
Following the investigation, the senior management officials and personnel have been targeted. A private land dealing firm named Land Stock Dealing Point Company involved is also on the radar. Initially, seven people suspected for a role in this fraud have been arrested. These include:
- Former Secretary General: Mehdi Khan Shakir
- Former Treasurer: Malik Muhammad Nawaz
- Former Executive Member: Muhammad Arshad
- 4 Individuals of Private Firm: Munir Akhtar, Ali Mehmood, Yameen Malik, Ghulam Jillani
Physical Remand
NAB has appointed different teams for the investigation. The Accountability Court Islamabad has provided NAB a seven day remand for the arrested individuals. This period within NAB custody allows them to carry out more detailed investigation and interrogation with the suspects. This eventually can lead to the traces of the money stolen and identification of more suspects which can in turn lead to more arrests.
The scandal of ICHS has become the largest real estate fraud of Pakistan as it is now discovered that 36,000 fake plot files were sold by the society administration to citizens. Suspects of the case have been arrested by NAB and remand has been granted by Accountability Court Islamabad. The case is currently under investigation and more arrests are expected. This scandal has highlighted how the public can be lured into illegal property investment practices and can cause great losses of not being careful.