T HIS refers to the report `Eden af fectees to get money back in 11 tranches, court told` (June 7). The common man remains deprived of justice as is evident from ancompensatory amount.

According to another report `Eden housing scam victims cry out for justice` (May 12), even Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal, who headed the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) at the time, had promised victims of Rs20bn in one year, but that of fer was rejected.

He was told by representatives of the victims that they would not agree on any amount below Rs25bn which should be paid in a single installment. As a matter of principle, the actual compensation can only be the plots of land against which the investments had been made. The cost of the housing project was Rs16bn when it was launched in 2009, while the NAB had filed the reference in 2018 at which time the worth of the project was evaluated at Rs27bn.

According to NAB, there were around 12,000 af fectees of the housing scam that was unearthed in 2013. The suspects, as per NAB, had collected Rs25bn from the public. Even the official rates of property in the area have doubled in the intervening period.

Successive governments, including the last one, failed to go beyond paying lip-service in this regard. Amid a sense of despair, the affectees now have their eyes fixed at the higher judiciary to come to their rescue and dispense real justice.

Salman Khan Lahoreaccountability court`s decision on the plea of those who fell victim to the Eden Housing Society scam. There are thousands of them who have been waiting for justice for the last more than a decade.

The court decision of disbursement of Rs16 billion among the stakeholders in 11 equal installments as a result of plea bargain entered into by the owner f alls short of the demands of justice. The victims have argued all along that the value of the land, which was supposed to be handed over to them, has significantly increased over the years and it would be grave injustice to deprive them of theirland or atleastthe proper