Tycoon Malik Riaz booked in Rs100bn land scam

The National Accountability Bureau on Wednesday filed a reference against real estate tycoon Malik Riaz and many others for illegal allotment of an amenity plot in Karachi’s Clifton area where the Bahria Town built Pakistan’s tallest building, Bahria Icon Tower.

The reference is said to be an offshoot of the fake accounts case against former president and PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur.

It is also a first reference in which Malik Riaz, the chairman of the Bahria Town, is nominated. NAB also nominated his son-inlaw Zain Malik as one of the suspects.

Other suspects are former Pakistan Peoples Party Senator Yousaf Baloch, former adviser to Sindh chief minister Dr Dinshaw Anklesaria, former Sindh chief secretary Abdul Subhan Memon, former director general- parks Liaquat Qaimkhani, Waqas Raffat, Ghulam Arif, Khawaja Shafique, Jamil Baloch, Afzal Aziz, Syed Mohammad Shah, Khurram Arif, Abdul Karim Paleejo, Khawaja Badee uz Zaman and others.

Contrary to its past practice, NAB which is otherwise very prompt when issuing a press release even in the stages of inquiry and investigation mainly against opposition leaders this time did not issue any statement or share any detail about the reference with the media.

However, the reference that NAB filed before the registrar of the accountability court stated that 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, where Bahria Town constructed its Icon Tower.

NAB alleges Bahria Town built Pakistan’s tallest building on Karachi’s Bagh Ibne Qasim land The skyscraper is located near the coast of the Arabian Sea in Karachi and it includes 62 storeys with 40- storey mixed-used buildings.