ISLAMABAD: Apparently responding to the remarks made by the Senate deputy chairman on Saturday, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has repudiated a “malicious propaganda campaign” being carried out in a section of media to malign the anti-graft watchdog by casting lopsided aspersions over the bureau.

A NAB spokesman said in a statement on Sunday that the bureau would not bow down before any propaganda campaign about its working.

The context used in some of the said media reports was premised on deliberate conjecturing and assumptions based on cherry picked surmises which were far from facts and aimed only to discredit NAB, he said.

Clarifying media reports about the land in the Kidney Hill area in Karachi, he said the land was reserved for development of a public park proposed by Karachi Development Authority (KDA) in 1966.

According to the spokesman, M. Aijaz Haroon made backdated, illegal and unlawful allotment of 12 plots of Overseas Society in the name of various builders and subsequently managed their ownership through open transfer letters.

Later, Senate Deputy Chairman Saleem Mandviwalla and Haroon entered into a property deal with Abdul Ghani Majeed of Omni Group and received about Rs144 million from fake bank accounts of A-One International and Lucky International, the spokesman alleged. Haroon and Mandviwalla shared crime proceeds of Rs80m and Rs64.5m, respectively.

The spokesman alleged that Mandviwalla had used his brother’s company Mandviwalla Builders and Developers and its bank account in the said transaction to camouflage it as a business transaction.

He purchased plot No. 30/55-A in Overseas Cooperative Housing Society (OCHS) Block 7 and 8 in the name of his employee Abdul Qadir Shiwani and also settled his personal loan with the Dawat-i- Haddayah, Karachi, a trust,” he said.

Out of the share of Mandviwalla from crime proceeds of Rs64.2m, Rs20m was transferred to Ahsan, plot seller, through pay orders, as requested by Mr Mandviwalla under his own signature, for purchase of the plot and Rs30m was paid as last installment of loan to Dawat-i-Haddayah.

The spokesman said Mandviwalla, after six to eight month, sold the property and its proceeds were again routed in the account of Mandviwalla Builders and Developers, which Mandviwalla held the mandate to operate since 2013. The account was again used by Mandviwalla in purchase of three million shares of Mangla View Resort valued at about Rs31m in the name of his employee Tariq Mehmood. The shares were frozen by the Accountability Court of Islamabad on Nov 24.

Published in Dawn, January 18th, 2021