Lt-Gen (Retd) Nazir Ahmed, Chairman of the NAB, delivered plots worth Rs 70 billion and checks of Rs 97 crore to 8,310 different housing scheme beneficiaries.

The NAB chairman was the main guest at the distribution event.

Lake City Holding gave allocation documents worth Rs 70 billion to 6,750 victims who had been waiting for plots from the State Life Society since 2003.

State Life Cooperative Society, under the supervision of NAB, will be affiliated with Lake City and will be developed over a three-year period.
Speaking at the ceremony, the NAB chairman stated that the settlement of Rs 70 billion in State Life plots will be considered the largest recovery in the NAB’s history in Punjab.

Since 2000, checks totalling Rs 97 crore have been distributed to 1,560 Formanites Housing victims who had been waiting for plots.

Payment of Rs 50 crore in the form of compensation to the victims will begin within two months.

During his visit, the NAB chairman also launched the Business Facilitation Cell for the business community at the NAB’s Lahore office.

Speaking at the event, the NAB chairman stated that it has been decided to create a facility centre in Lahore to resolve property-related issues for Overseas Pakistanis.

Efforts will be taken to establish a special court for Pakistanis abroad in Lahore to handle their issues on priority, he said, adding that directives have been issued to build a facility cell in Lahore for the real estate industry.

The chairman stated that it has been determined to bring all stakeholders together to accelerate real estate activity in Punjab.

“Developers and regulators want to address difficulties in one place to expedite the approval and development of housing projects.

“We will complete the works that used to take years in the past in weeks,” stated the engineer.
The chairman praised NAB Lahore teams for solving the State Life and Formanites Housing scandals in such a short period of time.

He gave certificates of appreciation to the State Life Cooperative and Formanites Housing joint inquiry teams.

Before departing, Chairman NAB conveyed his thoughts in a comments book.

On Friday, the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) resumed its upward trend, crossing 115,000 points once more.

The PSX had strong action in the morning session, as the KSE-100 index increased by 1,000 points to 115,138.

The notoriously volatile PSX closed Thursday at 114,037 points, up 594 points.

DOLLAR DEPRECIES

Meanwhile, in the interbank market this morning, the US dollar fell 7 paisas to Rs278.65 against the Pakistani rupee.

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) will release its monetary policy on Monday.

The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the SBP will convene on the first day of the following week to make decisions on monetary policy.

The Monetary Policy decision will be announced by Governor SBP Jameel Ahmad at a news conference on the same day after the MPC meeting, according to an official release.

In December, the central bank reduced policy rates by 200 basis points (bps) to 13 percent.

“In November 2024, headline inflation fell to 4.9 percent year on year, meeting the MPC’s estimates. This decrease was mostly caused by the ongoing decline in food inflation and the phasing out of the impact of the gas tariff increase in November 2023,” SBP stated in an official release.

“However, the Committee noted that core inflation, at 9.7 percent, is proving to be sticky, while consumer and business inflation expectations remain volatile.” To that end, the Committee restated its previous assessment that inflation may remain volatile in the short term before stabilizing within the target range.

“At the same time, growth prospects have slightly improved, as evidenced by a recent increase in high-frequency indicators of economic activity.” Overall, the Committee concluded that its approach of gradual policy rate decreases is keeping inflationary and external account pressures under control while promoting long-term economic growth.