LAHORE - The NAB Punjab has filed reference in the Accountability Court against 12 ex-officials of the Orient Industrial Cooperative Society Limited (OICSL) for fraudulently misappropriating an amount of Rs 42.614 million by cheating public at large. According to the reference, the accused Zia Rashid and Farooq Aftab, ex-chairman and ex-vice chairman respectively along with four ex-directors namely Muneer Khalid, Nadeem Iqbal, Mirza Muhammad Afzal Baig and Muhammad Rasool Khan got registered OICSL with registrar cooperative societies on November 23, 1989. Subsequently, the management changed and accused Mashood A Shah became the chairman of OICSL with accused Malik Muhammad Arif, Malik Muhammad Saleem, Iftikhar Hussain and Sajida Syed as directors while accused Saadat Ali Khan as its general manager. On receipt of complaint from the Punjab Cooperative Board for Liquidation (PCBL), an investigation was authorised by the NAB against the above accused for committing acts amounting to corruption and corrupt practices. The reference further highlights that accused had opened 86 branches of the society in different towns where the investments from general public were collected in violation of the object of registration and cooperative rules. The Punjab government vide order dated November 6, 1991 declared cooperative societies including OICSL as undesirable and PCBL was constituted to liquidate such societies. A total of 716 persons registered their claim worth Rs 46.54 million against the OICSL. Out of that, 366 claimants have been paid partially a total amount of Rs 8.55 million while 350 claims for total amount of Rs 38.29 million are pending. Earlier, the inquiry conducted by deputy / circle registrar cooperative societies, Sargodha had detected several irregularities in the working of society and had revealed loss of the society upto Rs 42.614 million. Judicial officer PCBL had also determined the liability of each accused separately and the total liability of the accused with mark up was determined Rs 111.559 million. The investigation by the NAB determined that all 12 accused in connivance with each other dishonestly misappropriated an amount of Rs 42.614 million collected from public at large and by illegal means obtained themselves pecuniary advantage. Only accused Muhammad Rasool Khan and Mashood A Shah joined the investigation while the rest are at large.