ISLAMABAD: The Natio­nal Accountability Bureau (NAB) was found clueless about the whereabouts of property tycoon Malik Riaz when he skipped a second consecutive hearing of Bahria Icon Tower Karachi reference by an accountability court on Monday.

When Judge Mohammad Bashir resumed the proceedings in the reference filed against the property tycoon last month for allegedly encroaching upon state land, four respondents including Malik Riaz, his son-in-law Zain Malik, ex-executive director of Karachi city government’s master plan and Waqas Raffat were not present in the court.

The judge expressed displeasure and wanted to issue proclamation against Mr Riaz and other suspects for being absent but was reminded by the counsel for former commissioner Abdul Subhan Memon that the proclamation could be issued only after the court started proceedings under Section 87-88 of the criminal procedure code. Under the section, the court declares a fugitive a proclaimed offender and attaches his/her properties as well.

The judge then sought a report from NAB’s investigation officer and adjourned the proceedings for about an hour.

The NAB investigation officer then admitted before the court that they were unaware of the whereabouts of Mr Riaz, his son-in-law and Mr Waqas. He said when the process server visited the house of Mr Riaz the staff deputed there informed him that he had gone abroad. He said the staff did not know about his destination.

The judge then asked the investigation officer when the anti-graft watchdog tried to probe where the suspect had gone. The NAB officer replied that the bureau could not access the record of suspects travelling beyond the United Arab Emirates.

The investigation officer, however, told the court that he heard from someone that one of the suspects was residing in Canada. The judge suggested to the NAB officer to inform his close relative about the court’s summons.

Further proceeding in this matter was later adjourned till March 20.

On January 15, the anti-graft watchdog filed a reference related to Bahria Icon Tower, Karachi. Malik Riaz and Zain Malik remained absent when the court commenced proceedings last month.

Bahria Icon Tower reference is an offshoot of the fake accounts case. It is the first reference in which Malik Riaz has been nominated as accused person and his son-in-law Zain Malik has also been nominated as an accused.

Among the other accused persons are former senator Yousaf Baloch, Dr Dinshaw Anklesaria, Liaquat Qaimkhani, Waqas Raffat, Ghulam Arif, Khawaja Shafique, Abdul Subhan Memon, Jamil Baloch, Afzal Aziz, Syed Mohammad Shah, Khurran Arif, Abdul Karim Paleejo and Khawaja Badeeuz Zaman and others.

According to the reference, the suspects had caused a loss of over Rs100 billion to the national exchequer through illegal allotment of amenity plot related to Bagh Ibne Qasim where Bahria Town constructed a skyscraper, Icon Tower. Bahria Icon Tower located off the coast of the Arabian Sea in Karachi is a skyscraper that includes 62-storey and 40-storey mixed-used buildings.

Earlier, Sajjad Abbasi, who served as provincial works and services secretary and was arrested in June 2019 for his alleged involvement in Bahria Icon Tower case, turned an approver last year. In his statement to the court, he said that he sold an amenity plot to Dr Anklesaria while he was working as the executive district officer for the revenue department. He claimed that Dr Anklesaria then sold the plot, where Icon Tower was later built, to Bahria Town’s Riaz.

Published in Dawn, March 3rd, 2020