ISLAMABAD: Real estate tycoon Malik Riaz Hussain on Tuesday sought permanent exemption from personal appearance before an accountability court in the Bahria Icon Tower reference.

When Advocate Farooq H. Naek filed attorney papers (wakalatnama) on behalf of Mr Riaz, Judge Mohammad Bashir of the accountability court in­­quired about Ali Riaz, son of the real estate developer, who is also an accused in the reference.

The counsel requested the court not to issue arrest warrants for Ali, assuring the judge that he would file wakalatnama on his behalf at the next hearing.

When the judge inquired about absconding accus­­ed Manzoor Qadir Kaka, the NAB prosecutor said Kaka had absconded to the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The court then issued a notice to the National Account­­­­ability Bureau on Mr Riaz’s application seeking permanent exemption from attendance in this case.

According to the NAB reference, the accused persons caused a loss of over Rs100 billion to the national exchequer through illegal allotment of an amenity plot related to Bagh Ibne Qasim and construction of a skyscraper, Bahria Icon Tower, on it. The skyscraper is located on the coast.

NAB had filed the reference before the registrar of the accountability court last year. After scrutiny, the registrar office placed the reference before the administrative judge of the accountability court, Islamabad.

Icon Tower case reference is an offshoot of the fake accounts case. Besides Mr Riaz and his son, other suspects in the case include Dr Dinshaw Anklesaria, Liaquat Qaimkhani, Yousaf Baloch, Waqas Raffat, Ghulam Arif, Khawaja Shafique, Abdul Subhan Memon, Jamil Baloch, Afzal Aziz, Syed Mohammad Shah, Khurram Arif, Abdul Karim Paleejo and Khawaja Badee-uz-Zaman.

Published in Dawn, March 3rd, 2021