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• NAB cautions public against investing in Bahria Town Dubai to avoid money laundering charges
• Says property tycoon’s housing projects being built on land ‘illegally possessed’ by Bahria Town
• Pakistan has extradition treaty with UAE; NAB spox says unaware if ‘red warrants’ issued
ISLAMABAD: After former prime minister Imran Khan was convicted by a court for corruption in the Al-Qadir Trust case, the National Accountability Bureau has swung into action against his co-accused Malik Riaz — a real estate tycoon who was declared an absconder in the same matter — to bring him back to Pakistan from the United Arab Emirates.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, the accountability watchdog said: “The government of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is reaching out to the government of the United Arab Emirates for the extradition of Malik Riaz through legal channels.”
According to NAB, Malik Riaz is an absconder in the case related to the repatriation of £190 million through the United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency (NCA), and is wanted by the court.
“NAB has already frozen innumerable assets of Bahria Town and Malik Riaz,” it said, adding that he had illegally occupied public and private land to build his Bahria Town housing schemes.
Malik Riaz, no stranger to Pakistan’s power corridors before his fall from grace, is currently in the UAE, where he plans to develop ‘Bahria Town Dubai’, a luxury housing project that also came under scrutiny in the NAB statement.
The bureau has asked citizens not to invest in this project, since that may be considered ‘money laundering’ by the government.
“The general public at large is hereby advised and warned to refrain from investing in the stated project. If the general public at large invests in the stated project, their actions would be tantamount to money laundering, for which they may face criminal/legal proceedings,” the statement said.
As the federal government tightens the noose around the real estate tycoon, it remains to be seen how he will be extradited from the UAE, given his purported links with several influential figures and power mongers.
Pakistan and the UAE do have an extradition treaty, and Islamabad can legally request the Gulf country to extradite the real estate mogul. When asked, a NAB spokesperson said they were not aware whether Malik Riaz would be extradited through Interpol, or if any red warrants had been issued in this regard.
Inquiries against Bahria Town
Sharing details of inquiries against the Bahria Town owner, NAB said it was conducting “inquiries/investigations against the owner of Bahria Town (Pvt.) Ltd., Mr Malik Riaz and the people associated with him for fraud, deceptive practices and cheating public at large”.
The statement said that NAB possessed cogent and credible information about the fact that Malik Riaz and his accomplices had not only “illegally possessed/occupied state-owned land but also land belonging to private persons situated at Karachi, Takht-Parri, Rawalpindi, and New Murree”.
“He is using these lands for developing housing societies without obtaining mandatory/required regulatory permissions/no objection certificates and has committed fraud against the state and general public at large to the tune of billions of rupees,” it added.
The statement said that in a duplicitous manner, Malik Riaz had been developing housing societies under the name of Bahria Town in other cities, including Peshawar and Jamshoro, by illegally occupying land and failing to procure the mandatory regulatory permissions and NOCs.
“Neither does Mr Malik Riaz nor Bahria Town have a good/clear title to any of the lands in these illegal housing societies,” the statement said.
Last week, Imran Khan and his spouse were sentenced in the £190 million case involving Al-Qadir Trust.
In its reference against Mr Khan, NAB had alleged that the then cabinet approved a confidential deed in 2019 to give £190m — seized by the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) and returned to Pakistan — back to real estate tycoon Malik Riaz.
The bureau had said that Mr Khan and Bushra Bibi got billions of rupees and land measuring hundreds of kanals from Bahria Town for “legalising” the money.
As per the reference, Malik Riaz’s son transferred 240 kanal of land to Farhat Shahzadi, while Zulfi Bukhari received land under a trust, which NAB argued did not exist at the time of transfer.
Published in Dawn, December 22nd, 2024
