Below is a compilation of articles, videos, pictures related to Malik Riaz, Bahria Town, Defence Housing Authority Islamabad (DHAI) & Habib Rafiq Limited (HRL).

This page is updated, as and when I come across any news related to the above persons or organizations.

24/11/2014

‘Official estimates of forest land inaccurate’

ISLAMABAD: The Rawalpindi district collector has claimed before the Supreme Court that the total area, which the Punjab Forest Department claims has been encroached by Bahria Town, is in fact 215 acres and not 684 acres as previously claimed.

“After superimposing the map of Rakh Takht Pari on a satellite image, the Urban Unit (of the Punjab government) worked out that the total area of Takht Pari Forest is 1,741 acres not 2,210 acres,” said a report submitted by Rawalpindi District Coordination Officer Sajid Zafar Dall, in his capacity as the district collector.

On Oct 25, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice Nasirul Mulk had ordered the district collector to submit a comprehensive report regarding the demarcation of forest lands, allegedly encroached by Bahria Town (Pvt) Ltd in 2005. The land is originally owned by the Rawalpindi Forest Department.

The directions were issued during suo motu proceedings initiated on an application filed by Malik Muhammad Shafi in 2009, highlighting the destruction of forest and the illegal acquisition of land by Bahria Town in the Rakh Takht Pari area. In his application, Mr Shafi had alleged that revenue officials colluded with Bahria Town in the acquisition of the land.

Court told accurate demarcation no longer possible due to excessive construction in the area

The current dispute, according to the Forest Department,related to the illegal occupation by Bahria Town of 684 acres of land in Rakh Takht Pari.

Located about six kilometres outside of Rawalpindi city, near G.T. Road, Rakh Takht Pari was originally transferred to the Forest Department in August 4, 1856.

An earlier report of the Punjab government had suggested that almost the entire area of Rakh Takht Pari consisted of natural shrub forest. Neither the Takht Pari forests nor the private holdings in the area had been previously identified or earmarked, the report said.

The Supreme Court, however, ordered Rawalpindi District Forest Officer Abid Majid to come up with objections and submit original proofs to contradict the district collector’s report.

Meanwhile, Bahria Town’s counsel Advocate Ali Zafar maintained his original position that the Supreme Court had no jurisdiction to intervene in a private land dispute between Bahria Town and the Forest Department saying that the matter should be settled by the concerned court through a private civil suit.

In the latest report, the collector has clarified that the Punjab government’s urban unit is in possession of 1,526 acres and 215 acres may be considered encroached.

In an earlier demarcation, conducted in 2007, the report explained, encroachment of 146.25 acres was found and settled through exchange mutations, which have been upheld by the Punjab Board of Revenue.

However, the report assured the court that the district revenue authorities will further examine the remaining encroachment and work out the exact quantum of illegally occupied lands, either by Bahria Town, the Defence Housing Authority (DHA), Agosh Town and/or others.

Highlighting the discrepancy in the records of the forest department, the report stated that physical demarcation was not possible in the area because area surrounding the land in question has been built-up area.

Permanent points, which are essential reference points for field demarcation, are no longer in their original shape. Housing colonies, including Bahria Town, DHA, Agosh Town etc have been developed on almost all sides and residential units, commercial plazas and markets have mushroomed in the area. Since the land has practically assumed an urban character, there are serious issues with the demarcation process, the report said.

See: http://www.dawn.com/news/1146335/official-estimates-of-forest-land-inaccurate

26/10/2014

SC seeks report on forest land allegedly occupied by Bahria Town

By Nasir Iqbal

SLAMABAD: The Supreme Court has ordered Rawalpindi District Coordination Officer (DCO) Sajjid Zafar Dall to submit a demarcation report of around 1,416 acres of forest land, allegedly encroached upon by the Bahria Town Housing Society in 2005. The land was originally owned by the Rawalpindi Forest Department.

The directions were issued by a three-judge Supreme Court bench, headed by Chief Justice Nasir-ul-Mulk that had taken up a suo motu hearing on an application by Malik Mohammad Shafi.

In his petition, Shafi contended that Bahria Town acquired two separate pieces of land illegally and destroyed the forest area there to make way for housing units.

The application was first moved in 2009, where the applicant alleged that the pieces of land were illegally occupied, in collusion with revenue department officials.

Punjab govt yet to furnish demarcation report, keeps asking for more time

The dispute involves the illegal occupation of 684 acres in the Rakh Takht Pari forest and 732.5 acres of Lohi Bheer forest by Bahria Town.

When the case was last heard on May 13, 2013, then-Rawalpindi DCO Rashid Mehmood and Divisional Forest Officer (South) Ijaz Ahmed told the Supreme Court that Islamabad police and Rangers personnel had thwarted an attempt by the forest department to demarcate the land in the Takhat Pari area on September 7, 2011 by imposing a ban on ‘unlawful assembly’ in the area.

The court was told that this was done at the behest of Bahria Town, whose management had also held forest officials hostage for a couple of hours.

The former DCO had also told the court that the Rawalpindi Board of Revenue had already cancelled the mutation entries of these lands in favour of Bahria Town on September 10, 2012.

Tehsildar (collector) Noor Zaman, who had led the team attempting to demarcate forest land, could identify those law enforcement officials who had prevented them from carrying out their duties, he said.

On July 22, 2014, authorities from Punjab had sought a period of 45 days to submit the land demarcation report, but the court gave them only 30 days and postponed further proceedings for August 25.

When the case taken up again, another request was made on behalf of the DCO, seeking more time. The court then gave them another three weeks.

On Oct 20 this year, Additional Advocate General Punjab Razzaq A Mirza had told the apex court that despite earlier court orders, the demarcation report had not yet been finalised.

He told the court that demarcation had been carried out by a specially-constituted committee and employed modern global positioning (GPS) technology as well as old maps from the Survey of Pakistan.

Now, proceedings in the matter have been adjourned until November 17, when the DCO has been asked to appear in person with the report.

Takhat Pari is located at six kilometres from Rawalpindi city near G. T. Road with a total area of 2,210 acres. The land originally transferred to the Forest Department in August 4, 1856.

An earlier report submitted by the Punjab government suggested that nearly all of the Rakh Takht Pari area is natural shrub forest, dominated by “phulai and sanatha bushes”.

Neither the Takht Pari forests or private holdings (mostly shamlat) were previously identified or earmarked, the report said.

The Bahria Town management had allegedly begun construction on the encroached lands by developing roads and residential areas in the Takhat Pari area, knowing full well that the land belonged to the forest department.

Bahria Town’s counsel Ali Zafar, meanwhile, challenged the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court to hear the matter, arguing that the case at hand concerned a private piece of land and the dispute was between Bahria Town and the forest department, which should be settled by the concerned court through a civil suit.

He asked how the Supreme Court could take up the matter when a civil suit filed by Bahria Town is currently pending before a Rawalpindi civil judge and a number of ordinary civil suits are also being heard by other courts.

See: http://www.dawn.com/news/1140473/sc-seeks-report-on-forest-land-allegedly-occupied-by-bahria-town

13/09/2014

CDA directed to stop illegal construction in Bahria Town

By Malik Asad

Published a day ago

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday directed the chairman Capital Development Authority (CDA) to stop ‘illegal construction’ in Bahria Town and submit a compliance report to the court within a week.

Justice Athar Minallah passed the restraining order on a petition filed by the association of residents, Bahria Town.

Last year, the petitioners had filed an application with the CDA to stop the housing society from violating the layout plan according to which the Bahria Town management had to develop public parks, mosques, schools, greenbelts and other utilities on the land reserved for public services.

The petitioners approached the IHC in May last year, saying they purchased costly plots in the housing society but the town management sold out the amenity plots after developing them for commercial purposes.

IHC issues directions on a petition filed by residents’ association

They requested the court to direct the CDA to restrain the Bahria Town management from commercialising the amenity land.

The CDA legal adviser, Ataullah Kundi, submitted a report to the court confirming that the housing society had violated the layout plan and converted a number of greenbelts, parks and even land reserved for mosques into commercial plots. The court observed that the “CDA has completely failed to perform its statutory obligations. Prima facie, it seems quite disturbing that the no-objection certificate (NOC) was issued to Bahria Town on July 7, 2001, and the regulator first time visited the site on May 4, 2013, after the petition was filed.”

The court directed that “the CDA chairman shall constitute a team of officials, who shall visit the housing scheme and ensure that any construction in violation of the NOC granted in 2001 shall be forthwith stopped till the decision of a show-cause notice” issued by the authority.

After the court issued its written order, the management of Bahria Town filed an application against it with the IHC through their counsel Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan and Barrister Gohar Ali Khan. In the application, the housing society requested the court to recall the order.

Talking to Dawn, Barrister Gohar claimed that Bahria Town did not violate the layout plan. He said the construction in the housing society had been carried out under the light of an order passed by the Lahore High Court (LHC) in 2004.

On July 8, 2004, Justice Akhtar Shabbir of the LHC directed the CDA to approve the layout plan of the housing society. The civic body filed an appeal against the order with the LHC, saying that approving the layout plan to any housing society was the sole prerogative of the CDA and the court could not pass such a direction. After the establishment of the IHC in January 2011, the case was transferred to the IHC.

However, the CDA in April 2012 withdrew the appeal, which enabled Bahria Town management to continue the construction in accordance with their ‘controversial’ layout plan. The CDA was the appellant in the matter and on April 18, 2012, it filed an application with the IHC for the withdrawal of the appeal, stating that the authority was not interested in continuing the litigation against Bahria Town, which was accepted by the court.

It may be noted that following the withdrawal of the appeal, the then CDA legal adviser Mohammad Ramzan Chaudhry, who is the incumbent vice-chairman of the Pakistan Bar Council, resigned from the CDA, saying the withdrawal was against the interest of the civic body.

06/07/2014

DHA in Peshawar

OVER several years now, there have been warnings that Pakistan is an increasingly food-insecure country, and large sections of its population are going hungry or are malnourished. There are several reasons for this, from rising prices of daily dietary essentials to increasing rates of poverty and the fact that food production is simply not keeping pace with the needs of a growing population. This is disturbing enough given that this is a country that has a largely agricultural economy. But even more worrying is the manner in which myopia, mismanagement and policymaking for short-term gains at the cost of long-term benefits combine to strip away citizens’ most fundamental rights. Consider, for example, the recent news that the Pakistan Army-managed Defence Housing Authority has planned two major housing schemes in Peshawar. That this is the only news on the sector from the area is in itself surprising because while there is a severe shortage of housing in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (and the rest of the country), the need is for affordable, low-income dwellings rather than mansions of the sort that are identified with the DHA, and which come with price tags in the multiple millions. But, as if to further insult the poor of the province, there is the location. These schemes are to be established on a vast tract of land that is populated, fertile and being used for agricultural purposes. The area is, indeed, considered the ‘food basket’ of the province and a variety of fruit, vegetables and crops are grown there. Moreover, should work go ahead with these housing schemes, the displacement of some 100,000 people is likely, along with bringing to an end their source of earning — farming.

There are precedents that can be used to show that in the past, policymakers have recommended that agricultural land not be given over for commercial or other purposes. Better sense needs to prevail here. The DHA is a powerful group with interests all over the country; its practice of swallowing land wholesale to build colonies for the elite while leaving the poor dispossessed is amply in evidence. It is for KP’s policymakers and Peshawar’s city planning authorities to intervene and make sure that alternative locations are found. Certainly, cities need to expand. But development must not cater to one section of society at the cost of another. Further, a food-insecure country cannot afford to throw away precious agricultural land.

See: http://www.dawn.com/news/1117365/dha-in-peshawar

05/07/2014

DHA plans housing projects on

farmland

PESHAWAR: The two mega housing projects planned by the Defence Housing Authority in Peshawar have upset the local farming community, who fear the development of the proposed schemes will not only deprive them of a large swath of fertile land but will also adversely affect their livelihood.

The DHA Peshawar, a subsidiary of the Pakistani Army, has planned to develop the two schemes in the suburbs of the provincial capital and recently placed advertisements in newspapers to seek staff though the government has banned sale, purchase and allotment of land in areas specified for the projects.

Officials in the housing department said Chief Minister Pervez Khattak had approved the summary and authorised DHA to develop housing schemes in two Peshawar localities.

They said the revenue department had invoked Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 before banning the sale and purchase of immoveable properties in Wodpaga and portion of land opposite the Regi Lalma Township on Nasir Bagh Road.

Growers fear schemes to deprive them of fertile land, bread and butter

An official said under the DHA Peshawar Act, 2009, the housing department was bound to notify names of the areas allowing DHA to develop housing schemes there.

He said the chief minister had approved the DHA schemes.

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly had passed a bill in January 2009 for the establishment of DHA, Peshawar.

The DHA Peshawar, the act says, will function under a governing body, while the Peshawar corps commander will head it as chairman.

The official said thousands of acres land would be acquired for the two projects and that use of land in the specified localities had been granted to DHA.

He said under the law, nobody would be able to develop housing schemes in the areas without the DHA permission.

The farmers and senior government officials have serious reservations about the DHA schemes, which, they fear, will deprive owners of fertile land as well as bread and butter and thus, causing the mass displacement in the area populated by over 100,000 people.

“In principal, this is unfair to develop a housing scheme on agricultural land already inhabited by thousands of people but the government has no other option,” said an official.

He said the housing scheme supposed to be developed either on barren or arid land but the army had its own thinking. “We are the government servants and have to obey the order,” he said.

Former provincial agriculture minister Arbab Ayub Jan, who owns the vast farmland in Wodpaga locality, where one of the schemes has been proposed, said development of housing schemes on agricultural land was a violation of the decision of the provincial cabinets.

He said the provincial cabinets had decided first in 1988, then in 1994-95 and later in 2008-13 that there would be no conversion of agricultural land for commercial and housing activities in future.

The former minister said the proposed schemes would adversely affect population in three union councils by depriving hundreds of families depending on farming of livelihoods.

“It will have negative impacts on economy and environment of Peshawar as 60 per cent fertile land will vanish,” he said, adding that he and other stakeholders would go to the court against the schemes.

Arbab Ayub said Peshawar had already lost its greenery and agricultural land due to the massive influx of people from Fata and settled areas of the province.

He said the areas, where schemes were to be developed, were known for producing a variety of fruits, vegetables and crops and if the area was converted into a housing sector, then the people would have to procure fruits and vegetables from other provinces.

The countryside of Peshawar towards Charsadda district is called ‘food basket’ for producing different agricultural products.

The ‘Landcover Atlas of Pakistan’ designed by the Pakistan Forest Institute in 2012 shows of the total 111,702 hectares of Peshawar district, agricultural area measures 84,138 hectares and that the settlement is on 12,907 hectares, which is 11.6 per cent of the total area.

Former MPA Saqibullah Khan Chamkani said agricultural land in Peshawar had already shrunk due to the unplanned human settlements and that construction of housing schemes on farmlands would ruin agriculture sector.

He said Peshawar was like a ‘food basket’ for the entire province and therefore, the government and other entities should develop housing projects on barren areas.

An official of DHA Peshawar claimed the authority was going to launch housing projects at the request of the provincial government.

He said around six years ago, the then government and governor had requested the DHA to execute housing schemes in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

“The (Pakistan) Army is a national institution and for national integration, it should also introduce housing schemes in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa like it has done in Punjab and Sindh,” he said while quoting a paragraph of a letter of the former governor, who wrote to the military leadership.

The official said there was no harm in developing planned housing project, while the mushroom growth of unplanned settlements had encroached on agricultural land.

See: http://www.dawn.com/news/1117227

10/06/2014

Revenue officials accused of conniving with land mafia

By Malik Asad

Updated 3 days ago

ISLAMABAD: A private land developer recently submitted a complaint to the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) Rawalpindi against alleged nexus between the revenue officials and the ‘land mafia’.

But instead of probing the matter, the ACE referred it to the revenue department for adjudication.

In addition to ‘facilitating’ the land mafia, the revenue officials, especially tehsildars and patwaris, were also accused of providing financial support to the local politicians for their political activities.

The complaint filed with the chief secretary Punjab and the director general ACE by Allied Developers stated: “In order to safeguard the interest of the state and its citizens, the nexus of bureaucracy and the Qabza mafia should be broken.”

It cited an example where Additional District Collector (Revenue) Rawalpindi Talat Mehmood Gondal declined to adjudicate a controversy related to a sale deed in order to favour a private housing society.

Dr Mohammad Shafique, the director of the complainant firm, alleged that encroachment on forest land of Punjab and the multi-billion scam of the Employees Old-Age Benefits Institution (EOBI) had been committed in connivance with the revenue officials and the land mafia.

He alleged that in addition to the additional collector and the tehsildar Rawalpindi, a blue-eyed boy of an incumbent federal minister was protecting the land mafia.

After visiting different offices, when the complaint reached the ACE Rawalpindi, it forwarded the matter to the revenue officials against whom relief had been sought by the complainant.

When contacted, ACE Assistant Director Chaudhry Arshad Mehmood said the revenue officials had the judicial powers and would decide the matter.

He, however, said the ACE would intervene in the matter at a later stage after the disposal of the complaint by the revenue office.

It may be mentioned that the Lahore High Court (LHC) in June 2012 while deciding the petitions of the affectees of Bahria Town and the Revenue Cooperative Housing Society (RECHS) merger had directed the ACE to take action against those corrupt revenue officials who had allegedly ‘facilitated’ the deal against the interest of hundreds of RECHS members.

However, so far not a single revenue official has been booked by the ACE.

According to sources, the reason why the ACE shows leniency for revenue officials is the services of patwaris, tehsildars and additional collectors for the local politicians.

The sources said the revenue staff allegedly received kickbacks from the land mafia for protecting their interest and spent some of the ill-gotten money on the campaigns of the politicians.

According to the sources in the revenue office, despite claims made by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government, patwaris and tehsildars still allegedly took bribe from the land owners for issuing ‘fard’ (ownership document), transfer of land and registration of immovable property from one person to another.

They said the officials allegedly took thousands of rupees from the citizens for performing their official jobs for which they were already being paid salaries through the taxpayers’ money.

Those who refused to pay them the bribe are forced to wait for years to get a document which could be available in a single day.

Take the case of Dr Abdul Razzaq, 80, who has been visiting the offices of patwaris and tehsildars for several years to get his land transferred in his name which he bought in 1973.

Mr Razzaq, a resident of Rawalpindi, said after he refused to pay bribe to the tout of a tehsildar, the revenue staff - patwari, gardawar - not only refused to transfer his land but also raised a new objection on his application whenever he visited them.

“It is very difficult to meet these officials as because of my old age I cannot visit them on a daily basis and when I could manage to reach their offices they are not available,” he complained.

Ghulam Sarwar Khan, Member National Assembly (MNA) of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), when contacted, alleged that the PML-N politicians used revenue officials to meet the expenses of their election campaigns and other political activities.

He also alleged that the blue-eyed tehsildars and patwaris collected bribe from those who visited their offices for the routine work. After keeping their share, they forward the rest to the minister, he alleged.

“The lifestyle of certain politicians of the PML-N does not commensurate with their known sources of income and it appears that they also get their share from the ‘revenue’ of the tehsildars and patwaris,” he added.

However, Mushahidullah Khan of the PML-N told Dawn that the rivals of his party always levelled allegations that the patwaris were behind the successful rallies and public gatherings of the party, which was not correct.

He said the PML-N bore the cost of arrangements for the rallies and other political activities from the funds it collected from the party members.

When he was reminded that the details of the expenses the PML-N submitted to the Election Commission of Pakistan did not commensurate with the huge amount its politicians spent on their publicity campaigns, he said the district organisers in different cities were responsible for the arrangements of such activities and they raised the finances on their own.

Additional Commissioner Rawalpindi Habibullah refused to comment on the matter. However, Assistant Commissioner Revenue Tasnim Ali said action was being taken against the corrupt officials.

He denied any political interference in the affairs of the revenue officials and said the revenue officials were working without the influence of outsiders.

See: http://www.dawn.com/news/1111324/revenue-officials-accused-of-conniving-with-land-mafia

28/05/2014

SC allowed DHA to withdraw Rs 420 million for employees salaries

Tuesday, 27 May 2014 19:45

Posted by Imaduddin

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed the Defence Housing Authority (DHA) to withdraw Rs 420 million from the seized account for payment of employees' salaries and utility bills.

The three-member bench of apex court headed by Justice Saqib Nisar resumed hearing of the case regarding multibillion corruption scam in Employees Old-Age Benefit Institute (EOBI).

The court directed the DHA to submit a bank guarantee for permanent revival of Rs 6 billion seized account.

During the course of proceedings, Chairman EOBI informed the court that Board of Trustees has decided to return the purchased properties to their original owners after receiving amount with interest.

Justice Nisar termed it a good omen and directed the counsels of different parties to discuss the matter with their clients. He said that if any party wants to get back property the court would facilitate them and the court would also issue directives to withdraw the cases registered against them.

He remarked that the case registered against EOBI employees would decide the concerned courts.

He observed that if concerned parties failed to reach any consensus then the court would issue proper directives in this regard and the court could also form a judicial commission to investigate the corruption cases.

The counsel for DHA informed the court that DHA was ready to get back the properties because its reputation will be badly affected in the market.

Chairman EOBI informed the court that the institute will also receive 9.5 per cent interest with expenditure after returning purchased properties.

Irfan Qadir counsel for DHA informed the court that DHA sold Rs 22 billion property and it did not agree the EOBI decision to get back the properties to their original owners.

Irfan Qadir pleaded the court to reopen the seized DHA accounts so that the authority can pay utility bills and salaries of the employees.

The court accepted the DHA counsel plea and ordered to release amounts and adjourned hearing for two weeks.

See: http://www.brecorder.com/pakistan/politics-a-policy/174692-sc-allowed-dha-to-withdraw-rs-420-million-for-employees-salaries.html

12/04/2014

Suo motu jurisdiction overstretched, DHA lawyer tells SC in EOBI case

ISLAMABAD: A lawyer representing the Defence Housing Authority (DHA) in the EOBI scandal said on Wednesday he hoped the Supreme Court would not assume jurisdiction on a suo motu in this case.

“It is a matter of universal testimony now that exercise of suo motu jurisdiction has been overstretched by some benches of this court ever since the restoration of former chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry,” Advocate Irfan Qadir said in a statement submitted to an apex court bench headed by Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali.

The bench had taken suo motu notice of the multi-billion-rupee corruption scandal in the Employees Old-Age Benefits Institute (EOBI) relating to investment in private sector projects without approval by the Board of Trustees (BoT).

An investigation by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) suggested that the EOBI had made investment in two different DHA schemes. The first deal, worth Rs15.473 billion and signed on Jan 19, 2012, involved the purchase of 321 kanals of land in the DHA Islamabad. In the second deal signed on March 15 last year, the EOBI paid Rs6.82bn for 23 commercial plots of eight marla each, 12 residential plots of two kanals each and 162 three-bedroom and 29 five-bedroom villas in Sector F, Phase-I DHA Rawalpindi.

On Wednesday, the court asked the EOBI to reconsider in its BoT meeting scheduled for April 18 whether it intended to retain or surrender the properties after getting back payments it had made through investment in what was perceived to be a dubious real estate business with a number of housing societies.

Irfan Qadir argued that the BoT could not at this stage wriggle out of solemn commitments made earlier by the EOBI or in any way unilaterally recall the contract in question. Similarly, the Supreme Court has no jurisdiction to enter into lengthy investigations on questions of fact or law through tedious hair-splitting while exercising its jurisdiction under Article 184(3) and more so when the deal is even otherwise fair, transparent, legal and benefiting to the EOBI.

Mr Qadir, who served as attorney general when Iftikhar Chaudhry was the chief justice, cited the April 3 hearing in a different case which was later referred to Chief Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani with a request to constitute a larger bench and decide the scope and extent of exercise of suo motu jurisdiction by the Supreme Court.

Even at the last hearing a judge of this bench had observed in a preceding case that “time has come to clear this mess”, the counsel said, adding that he hoped the court, while taking into account this important consideration, would not be misled in assuming jurisdiction in the EOBI case in which it had none under Article 175(2) of the Constitution. Justice Anwar Jamali agreed with the counsel that suo motu jurisdiction should be used sparingly and that parameters needed to be determined for the exercise of this jurisdiction by the court.

At a reference held in honour of former chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry on Dec 11 last year, the incumbent chief justice had also stressed the need for reconsidering and determining the limits and contours of jurisdiction under Article 184(3) of the Constitution with a view to discouraging frivolous petitions and preventing the misuse of jurisdiction by vested interests.

Irfan Qadir contended that no illegality in the deal between the DHA and the EOBI was committed. Prices and details of the properties were mutually agreed upon after due deliberation in an open and transparent arrangement which eventually culminated into a contract. It was duly entered and validly being executed for a lawful consideration in accordance with the provisions of the Contract Act 1872, Mr Qadir said in his statement.

As a whole the valuation of the properties on which these were sold to the EOBI by the DHA has been held to be correct and proper by Nespak which in its report verified an increase of approximately Rs1.9bn (12 per cent) in the price of property along Expressway and of Rs368 million (6pc) in property in Sector-F during the period.

See: http://www.dawn.com/news/1098881/suo-motu-jurisdiction-overstretched-dha-lawyer-tells-sc-in-eobi-case

17/03/2014

Quick gas connections put house owners in trouble

RAWALPINDI: Unwary residents of posh localities of the garrison city who fell for ‘quick gas connection’ offers find themselves in trouble after the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines (SNGPL) has come up with its own offer.

Dawn has learnt that scores of residents of Defence Housing Authority (DHA), Bahria Town and similar up-class localities who fell victim to conmen’s offers, have been charged by the SNGPL with securing illegal connections and installing stolen gas meters. Some of them have been heavily fined.

Theft of gas meters has been on the rise in Rawalpindi in recent months.

SNGPL sources said that during the last six months 730 domestic consumers reported to the company that their gas meters had been stolen.

It were, however, inquiries from some consumers in posh colonies why they were not getting bills that revealed to the SNGPL that conmen were using the stolen gas meters to provide quick connection to the moneyed needy living in DHA Phases I and II, Bahria Town and other localities for fees ranging from Rs60,000 to Rs100,000.

“Some DHA employee would have been part of the gang offering swift illegal connections,” suspected a SNGPL official.

After disconnecting gas supply, and imposing fines of up to Rs140,000 on the owners of some 70 houses fitted with stolen meters, the SNGPL passed on the case to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), which booked them for having stolen meters and using unaccounted for gas (UFG).

But soon the FIA realised that the SNGPL had handed it a hot potato, for many of the owners turned out to be serving or retired air commodores, brigadiers and colonels. It was understandable to them that desperate needs lead to desperate actions.

In order to avoid legal actions, the military officers submitted written statements to the SNGPL authorities, pleaded not guilty.

For instance, Air Commodore Siddique Akbar informed the SNGPL that he paid Rs60,000 for a quick connection but was not aware that the gas meter being installed at his house in DHA Phase II was stolen.

Brigadier Ashfaq, another resident of DHA, narrated the same story, but the gas company fined him Rs140,000 on account of UFG.

Raja Mansoor Nasir told Dawn that soon after he completed constructing his house in DHA Phase II, a shady character offered him a quick gas connection for Rs90,000.

“I ignored his offer because I had direct contacts with some SNGPL officials,” he said, wondering how the conman came to know he was seeking gas connection.

“There must be someone in the DHA administration and SNGPL who leaked the information regarding connection seekers to conmen,” he said.

Javed Iqbal Khan, general manager, SNGPL, Rawalpindi, claimed to Dawn that out-of-turn connections stopped after SNGPL cracked down on the corrupt elements in the company and the mafia active in the sector.

Though admitting that the mafia had moved its operations to other localities in the city, the SNGPL official assured that “stolen meters cannot remain hidden as the monthly meter reading process would reveal them one day”.

His advice to gas connection seekers was “avoid embarrassment and legal action by waiting for your turn rather than pay big money to shady middlemen”.

See: http://www.dawn.com/news/1093624/quick-gas-connections-put-house-owners-in-trouble

13/03/2014

Malik Riaz and Bahria Town had disappeared from the news for a while, but are now back:

Supreme Court stirs dormant Pindi admin into action

ISLAMABAD: After five years, the Rawalpindi district administration is again out demarcating the vast tracts of forest land on the outskirts of the garrison city that a big real estate developer acquired, allegedly unlawfully, 14 years ago.

Dawn has learnt that the district administration has reassigned the task to the same three tehsildars (land revenue officers) who were given the assignment the first time in 2009 when the Supreme Court took suo motu notice of the allegations, and the litigations they gave rise to, and ordered the demarcation.

An annoyed Supreme Court summoned the District Coordination Officer of Rawalpindi recently to explain the inordinate delay.

That pushed the administration once again to go through the motions of demarcating the 684 acres the Bahria Town allegedly encroached upon in Rakh Takht Pari and another 732.5 acres in Loi Bher forested areas in 2005.

Since then, the issue of legal ownership of the land has been hanging fire in courts and become too complicated as part of the land the Bahria Town subsequently sold to the Defence Housing Authority (DHA) and to individuals.

Buyers, which included retired military officers, have raised commercial and residential buildings worth billions of rupees on the land they say they purchased lawfully, complicating a legal settlement.

Sixty-one civil and criminal cases are pending in various courts against the property tycoon Malik Riaz alone.

In the forestland case, his Bahria Town enterprise obtained a restraining order from a civil court against the demarcation process as Rawalpindi Revenue Board authorities allegedly dithered action.

There exists a feeling in the legal and political circles that the PML-N government in Punjab pursued the cases against Malik Riaz seriously when PPP coalition was ruling the country. But its vigour waned after the PML-N swept the 2013 general elections and came to power at the Centre too.

Punjab government’s additional prosecutor general Tariq Mustafa, however, insists the delay in prosecuting the cases was not deliberate. “It is the discretion of the courts to take them (the cases) up at regular intervals,” he told Dawn.

Though the Rawalpindi bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC) had declared illegal the merger of the Revenue Employees Cooperative Housing Society (RECHS) with the Bahria Town in June 2012, the judgment remains unimplemented due to legal complexities and the affected society members without relief.

Bahria Town lawyers have denied land-grabbing charges in courts, saying their client conformed to the law in developing the land and offered compensation if the interest of any RECHS members was hurt.

But in 2012, additional advocate general of the Punjab government Razzaq Mirza rejected the offer, saying forests are protected areas under the law and their land could not be sold or leased for housing purposes.

A revenue officer engaged in demarcation, speaking on the condition of anonymity, however, warned that demarcation of the forestland “at this stage when the Bahria Town has already sold the disputed land” would create further legal complexities.

“No one, neither the government nor the judiciary, had warned potential buyers of any encroachment. They purchased the land in a lawful manner and have raised buildings on them since,” he said.

A senior manager of the Bahria Town, Colonel (retired) Khalil, claimed to Dawn that the land in question was “undisputed and belongs to the Bahria Town

“Demarcating the land by government officials is tantamount to contempt of court,” he added, recalling the restraining order issued by a civil judge of Rawalpindi last year.

See: http://www.dawn.com/news/1092814/supreme-court-stirs-dormant-pindi-admin-into-action

03/01/2014

Rs48m sought for feasibility study of Daducha Dam

RAWALPINDI: After getting a no-objection certificate (noc) from the City District Government Rawalpindi (CDGR), the Small Dam Organisation (SDO) has sought Rs48 million from the Punjab government for the feasibility study of the proposed Daducha Dam on Soan River.

In 2001, the Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) and the SDO had proposed the construction of the dam but the project could not be initiated.

In 2006, the DHA purchased the 18,000 kanals of land on which the dam was to be built.

Later, the DHA established a housing scheme on the land in collaboration with Bahria Town. In 2011, the Supreme Court directed the provincial government to start work on the dam at its original site.

Following the directive, the Punjab government asked the city government Rawalpindi to cancel the sale deeds of the 18,000 kanals. In July 2012, the district administration froze all development activities in the area.

However, the DHA authorities contacted the Punjab government to construct the dam on the upstream instead of the proposed site. The plea was, however, turned down.

In December, the planning commission asked the SDO to start the feasibility study of the dam with the direction to the city government to issue the NOC for the acquisition of the land.

“The CDGR sought Rs2 billion from the Punjab government for the purchase of the land. However, the government allocated Rs48 million and asked the CDGR to complete the feasibility and then purchase the land,” an official in the local revenue department told Dawn.

He said after the feasibility study, work on the dam would be started next year.

When contacted, SDO superintending engineer Mirza Zafar Hussain told Dawn that the provincial government had allocated Rs48 million for the feasibility study and SDO had requested the government to release the funds. “Soon after receiving the funds, we would start the work,” he said.

The Daducha Dam project has been planned to provide 25 million gallon daily (MGD) water to the city and cantonment areas for the next 50 years.

At present, Rawalpindi gets 16 MGD water from the Rawal and Khanpur dams and 22 MGD from over 300 tubewells against its total need of 50 MGD.

The water supply from the Khanpur Dam is not enough to fulfil the requirements of the cantonment areas and city’s nine union councils.

Sources said a water crisis was feared to hit the city in the coming days if small dams were not built in three or four years. They said the city’s water demand would shoot up to 79 MGD in the next 20 years while the underground water level was receding rapidly.

See: http://www.dawn.com/news/1078035/rs48m-sought-for-feasibility-study-of-daducha-dam

29/12/2013

DHA Islamabad: FBR digs out non-NTN holder investors

The Directorate General of Intelligence and Investigation Inland Revenue, Federal Board of Revenue, has identified all investors, including both buyers and sellers, who have invested in DHA Islamabad, but doing business without obtaining any tax identifier - National Tax Number (NTN). Sources told Business Recorder here on Saturday that the directorate has completed a detailed exercise for taxing investment in the real estate sector-DHA Islamabad.

The agency has provided the details of all such un-documented buyers and sellers to the Commissioner Broadening the Tax-Base FBR House Islamabad for documentation of buyers and sellers in the real estate sector. The department would ensure that the investors must file their wealth statements disclosing details of their investment for documentation. According to the details, the Directorate General I&I-IR has initiated various projects aimed at digging out large scale tax evasion and non-compliance in the different sectors of the economy. One such project is the collection of information about investments in the real estate sector especially in prominent and expensive housing/commercial schemes.

As part of this exercise, information was collected about the investors (both sellers and purchasers) in the DHA Islamabad. The acquired information was cross-matched with the FBR data and cases of the investors not on the tax roll were filtered. List of such investors is available in the soft format for appropriate action by the Commissioner BTB FBR. Following aspects may be given due consideration to ensure proper incidence of tax in these cases: Firstly, the cases should be immediately brought on tax roll by initiating proceedings'' under the relevant provisions of law.

Sources said that the sale/purchase value of the plots mentioned in the acquired information seems to be on the lower side and efforts are needed to ascertain the actual sales/purchase value. Enforcing wealth statements and obtaining bank statements could prove beneficial for achieving this end. This could also lay bare other investments/incomes of the investors in the DHA. The information contains particulars of both the sellers and purchasers of the plots and action is required to be initiated against both, sources added.

See: http://www.brecorder.com/taxation/181/1268710/

04/10/2013

DHA, ETPB land sale agreement declared void by SC

ISLAMABAD: Supreme Court Wednesday declared the agreement between the Defence Housing Authority (DHA) and the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) null and void, Geo News reported.

In a suo motu case relating to the ETPB land of billions of rupees selling for peanuts, the Supreme Court three-member bench while declaring the agreement void also ordered for initiating criminal proceedings against ETPB Chairman, Asif Hashmi and others, adding that FIA should soon complete the investigation.

It may be recalled that the Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry had taken the suo motu notice of the sale of ETPB land worth billions of rupees for peanuts.

During the hearing, CJ on one occasion had observed that the ETPB made the illegal agreement by closing their eyes and added that in accordance with the constitution and law the Trust land can neither be sold nor can be exchanged with other land.

See: http://www.thenews.com.pk/article-120742-DHA,-ETPB-agreement-declared-void-by-SC

23/08/2013

‘Islamabad tunnel project is to facilitate land mafia’

ISLAMABAD, Sept 22: The tunnel project is an assault on the Margallah Hills National Park (MHNP) and an unpopular decision made to facilitate land mafia. The decision to link Haripur to Islamabad is causing concern among environmentalists all over the country.
This was stated by former bureaucrat and president of the Margallah Hills Society (MHS), Roedad Khan, while speaking to the media after attending a meeting of the civil society.
The meeting, which was held at his residence in F-7/3 on Sunday, was attended by civil society activists Dr Dushka Syed, Wajahat Lateef, Aitzazuddin Ahmed, Ameer Usman and Afzal Qahot.
Roedad Khan said the MHNP was a gift of nature and an irreplaceable asset, but some elements were trying to destroy the beauty of the federal capital.
While talking to Dawn, Mr Khan said, “The tunnel project was first proposed by Gen (retired) Musharraf, a military dictator, in collusion with property tycoon Malik Riaz, but the MHS opposed it,” he said.
He added that Malik Riaz, during a live debate on a private channel, had stated that he had given a two-hour briefing to Mr Musharraf and a one-and-half hour briefing to the then premier Shaukat Aziz regarding the project.
According to Mr Khan, Malik Riaz had clearly said that he had the approval of Mr Musharraf and did not need the permission of the environmental protection agency.
“At that time, it was said that a new Islamabad will be constructed behind Margallah and now the government is claiming that the tunnel will open an economic corridor. I assume it is the same project because Malik Riaz never gives up. However, other land mafias may also be involved,” he said.
Roedad Khan said the Capital Development Authority (CDA) had informed the Supreme Court on March 29, 2012, that the project had been deferred and was not being considered anymore.
In response, the court said no further action was called for and the civil society thought the project was laid to rest permanently.
“But on August 23, 2013, at a meeting presided over by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, it was decided that the project will be initiated to link Islamabad with Haripur and provide a shorter route to commuters of Gilgit Baltistan, Mansehra and Abbottabad,” he said.
Roedad Khan, terming the project illegal, said: “It seems the tunnel project has not been considered by the planning commission or sanctioned by the Executive Committee of National Economic Council. Furthermore, it has not been approved by any higher authority including the Environment Division and the Environment Protection Agency.”
He said if the project was not checked and construction began straightaway, the Margallah Hills and Islamabad would be damaged beyond repair.
The MHS president further said that he had already sought the intervention of the Supreme Court of Pakistan on the issue.
He also thanked Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed for submitting a motion in the Senate and appealed to all citizens of Islamabad, environmentalists and media to oppose the project.
“We have done this before. We can do it again to save the Margallah Hills,” Roedad Khan said.
Ironically, Mr Nawaz Sharif had himself issued directives to conserve the national park when he was prime minister in 1991.
According to documents available with Dawn, Mr Sharif said: “I have received disturbing reports that the Margallah Hills National Park, established by the federal government on 18th April 1980 under Islamabad Wild Life Ordinance, has been exposed to activities which are prejudicial to its preservation as a national park area and are environmentally hazardous for Islamabad.”
Mr Nawaz Sharif had then instructed CDA to eliminate all such activities as were damaging the environment of the federal capital.

http://dawn.com/news/1044818/islamabad-tunnel-project-is-to-facilitate-land-mafia

04/09/2013

Non-compliance of load shedding schedule

LESCO suspends power to Bahria Town

LAHORE: The Lahore Electric Supply Company (LESCO) has suspended the electricity supply of Bahria Town for not complying with the orders of the authority.
It is for the first time that the residents of Bahria Town have experienced a power shutdown for four consecutive hours. The details available to The Media Times reveal that the Bahria Town has set up a grid station on the premises of the housing scheme on its own expenses and the staff deputed there is paid by the Bahria Town administration, not by the power supply company.
The Bahria Town purchases electricity from LESCO in bulk and distributes it to its residents from the feeder it had established in the housing society. According to the agreement between LESCO and Bahria Town, the latter is bound to comply with the schedule of load shedding announced by the former. LESCO had directed Bahria Town to observe six hours’ load shedding a day for its residents and give a schedule to the authority but Bahria administration neither gave the schedule of load shedding nor implemented the authority’s directions.
LESCO wrote several letters to Bahria Town administration in this regard but to no avail. Despite repeated notices, the Bahria Town administration remained unmoved and did not act upon the advice. It did not even bother to reply any of the letters. Earlier, it was not possible to determine who was observing the load shedding schedule and who was violating it, but now LESCO has installed its meters which provide details of every minute that a feeder is shut down or is supplying power.
These meters detected that Bahria Town feeder was supplying electricity uninterrupted and the load shedding schedule was not being implemented. “LESCO wrote several letters to Bahria Town for ensuring six-hour load shedding in a day for its residents but they did not comply with the orders. They have their own staff on the grid station who accepts orders only from the Bahria administration. We sent them many notices but they did not pay heed to those and we were left with no option but to cut their supply,” Arshad Rafique, LESCO chief told Media Times.
He also clarified that the Bahria Town gives impression of having its own power house but the fact was that it had a grid station built by its own funding and did not have any power generation capacity. The housing society buys electricity from LESCO and distributes it from that grid station. He said that the impression that Bahria has a power generating unit was not correct.

See: http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2013%5C09%5C03%5Cstory_3-9-2013_pg7_15

02/09/2013

FIR ordered against Malik Riaz

ISLAMABAD, Aug 31: While hearing a petition against alleged land grabbing, an additional district and sessions judge of Islamabad on Saturday ordered the Bara Kahu police to register a case against property tycoon Malik Riaz, his son Ali Riaz and others.
Judge Zeba Chaudhry passed these directions while hearing a petition filed by Mohammad Moqarab Abbasi who sought the registration of an FIR against the accused. He alleged that Mr Riaz and others had grabbed 30 kanals of land in Phulgran village in the suburbs of Islamabad.
The petitioner maintained that a private firm, Green Tree, had purchased 118 kanal of his land in Phulgran which was later sold to Bahria Town.
However, he added that Bahria Town had also encroached upon an additional 30 kanals in the same area which belonged to the petitioner.
He said the owners of Bahria Town and their accomplices were ‘known land grabbers’ and had illegally occupied the private land belonging to local residents in addition to forest land to establish their private housing schemes.
In addition, the petitioner said the Islamabad police was under the land grabbers’ influence.
Despite repeated complaints, he said the police had not registered an FIR against the land grabbers including Malik Riaz, his son Ali Riaz and Captain (retired) Shahid, the site incharge of Bahria Town.
According to the petition, the accused had also destroyed the natural beauty of the area and were involved in cutting down numerous trees. However, no government department dared to stop them from damaging the environment.
Responding to the petition, the local police, in a reply submitted to the court, admitted that petitioner Abbasi had filed complaints with them against Malik Riaz and others.
However, they said the police were still investigating the matter.
On the other hand, Judge Chaudhry said the local police had failed to exercise their power because of which the court had to interfere.
“The petition is accepted and the SHO is directed to register an FIR against the accused to proceed in accordance with the law,” the judge added.

See: http://dawn.com/news/1039679/fir-ordered-against-malik-riaz

28/08/2013

FBR fails to recover Rs 119 billion tax from Malik Riaz: TI Pakistan

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has failed to recover Rs 119 billion tax from Malik Riaz on his publicly declared assets of Rs 225 billion. Transparency International Pakistan Adviser, Syed Adil Gilani in a letter sent to Federal Board of Revenue, Tariq Bajwa on August 27 has regretted that even after seven reminders sent to the Chairman FBR, TI-Pakistan has not been informed about the tax collected on Malik Riaz's publicly declared assets of Rs 225 billion.

TI-Pakistan has referred to its letter dated September 4, 2010 on the news published on September 1, 2010, with following request; " Transparency International Pakistan request the Chairman FBR to provide information to Transparency International Pakistan on the total value of assets of Malik Riaz as assessed by FBR in accordance with Income Tax Ordinance 2001, including the Income tax and Capital Value Tax paid in 2009 on assets worth over Rs 225 Billion (US 3 Billion). In case these assets have not been declared to the FBR in 2009-2010 returns of Malik Riaz, Transparency International Pakistan request FBR to take action according to the law. TI Pakistan is working for FBR to become a "Zero Tolerance against Corruption" organisation."

Referring to TI-Pakistan letters dated June 12, 2012, December 8, 2012, December 29, 2012 and February 13, 2013 Adil Gilani has urged the FBR to take immediate measures in accordance with the rules and regulations to recover Rs 119 billion from Malik Riaz. He recalled that on June 18, 2012, TI Pakistan had reported to the FBR a similar information for recovery of due taxes ( if not already recovered) on an apartment worth US $1.2 million owned by Najam Sethi in New York. The FBR had very promptly issued a notice to Najam Sethi on August 31, 2012.

According to the requirement of Law, on April 24, 2103 FBR issued orders to recover Rs 10.26 million from Najam Sethi. Contrary to this case, the FBR has not taken similar action for the recovery of Rs 119 billion from Malik Riaz, which is favouritism by the FBR to a tax evader
On January 3, 2013, the FBR informed TI Pakistan vide letter No 6(12) S(IR-Operations)/2012-15762-R, that the case has been sent to concerned field office for taking cognizance of the tax evasion in the subject case, and again on March 21, 2013, FBR informed TI Pakistan vide letter No 6(12) S(IR-Operations)/2012 that progress report on the tax recovery from Malik Riaz Hussain, from Chief Commissioners RTO Islamabad and Lahore, and Chief Commissioners LTU Islamabad and Lahore has been requested.

Adil Gilani requested Chairman FBR to provide information to TI-Pakistan whether the tax recovery of Rs 119 billion has already been made from Malik Riaz Hussain or not. In case the recovery is still outstanding, the Chairman has been to make the recovery possible.
He has highlighted that any action to provide illegal benefit in any taxation matter amounts to corrupting and corrupt practice under Section 9 (vi) of NAB Ordinance 1999, which reads as follows:
(vi)) (if he misuses his authority so as to gain any benefit or favour for himself or any other person, or [renders or attempts to render) [or wilfully fails to exercise his authority to prevent the grant, or rendition of any undue benefit or favour which he could have prevented by exercising his authority]; (vii) if he has issued any directive, policy, or any SRO (Statutory Regulatory Order) or any other order which grants or (attempts to grant) any (undue) concession or benefit in any taxation matter or law or otherwise so as to benefit himself or any relative or associate or a benamidar (or any other person)"
He has further requested that action may also be taken against the concerned officers under NAO 1999 who deliberately did not act against the tax evader M/s Riaz-Arslan-Khalil under the Section 192 A of the Income Tax Ordinance 2001, and caused loss to the exchequer by not recovering the amount even after TI-Pakistan had in right time in 2010 informed FBR in September 2010 about this major tax evasion by Malik Riaz Hussain.
"TI-Pakistan is striving to have transparency in procedures and Rule of Law in Pakistan, which is the only way to eliminate corruption and have good governance in country," he said.

See: http://www.brecorder.com/taxation/181:pakistan/1225779:fbr-fails-to-recover-rs-119-billion-tax-from-malik-riaz-ti-pakistan/

18/08/2013

Conspiracy underway to divide historic Sadiq Public School

LAHORE: The military establishment is manoeuvring the administration of legendary Sadiq Public School, Bahawalpur, to get 20 to 25 acres of school land in order to construct a road in the middle of the school.

The road is being constructed to provide direct access to the main road leading to the Defence Housing Authority (DHA) situated behind the school.

If the school administration allows construction of the road, the price of plots in DHA are likely to double – the key reason some influential military officers and some administrative officials of the school want to compromise and damage the school, sources said.

Bahawalpur Corps Commander Lt Gen Zubair Mahmood Hayat, the secretary of the school’s executive committee/board of governors, is allegedly influencing members of the board of governors to allow construction of the road to facilitate DHA, sources revealed.
All students, teachers and alumni of the school are against the division of the historic and traditional school.

Sources in the school management said that during a recent meeting of the BoG, Bahawalpur Commissioner Caption (r) Asadullah Khan took a firm stance against the construction of road. He said the school’s values and traditions, and the security of boarders would be at stake if the board allowed the division.

Sources said that most members of the BoG and alumni were also against the manoeuvring on part of the military establishment; however, some of them were being influenced or controlled, while others were being allured with bribe of plots in the DHA.
The DHA administration has also reportedly offered plots to members of the school administration in exchange for allowing the construction of the road.

The 2,000 students of the school, especially the 520 boarders, including 100 girls, consider this road a serious threat to their security.

The alumni of Sadiq Public School have also demanded army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and Education Minister Rana Mashood Ahmad Khan to stop military manoeuvring.

The school is situated on 451 acres. The students and alumni have warned the government that they would come out on roads if the DHA administration was allowed to divide the school and damage their traditions.

The school’s board of governors consists of ex-officio members: General Officer in Command (GOC) Lt Gen Zubair Mahmood Hayat, Bahawalpur Commissioner Caption (r) Asadullah Khan, Sadiq Public School acting principal Prof Abdullah Shah (the seat of principal is currently vacant) and the Punjab schools education secretary.

Other members of the BoG are: Ch Muhammad Zaka Ashraf, Makhdoom Shahabuddin, Dewan Ashiq Hussain Bokhari, Farhat Aziz Khan Mazari, Lt Gen (r) Waseem Ahmad Ashraf, Muhammad Ali Laleka, Major (r) Tariq Mahmood Mazari, Sahibzada Muhammad Osman Abbasi, Riaz Hussain Pirzada, Sardar Muhammad Ayub Ghallu, Raheel Ahmad Siddiqui, Muhammad Nawazish Ali Pirzada and Saeed Ahmad Khan Manais.

Lt Gen Zubair Mahmood was not available for his comments despite several attempts to reach him. His staff officer refused to comment, saying that ISPR’s Major Waqas was the competent authority to speak on this issue.

When contacted, Major Waqas did not deny the information regarding the SPS land issue, and sought some time for his official comment. However, after two days, without denying the information, he refused to give any official point of view on the issue.

See: http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2013%5C08%5C18%5Cstory_18-8-2013_pg7_12

Govt admits DHA land scam in Punjab Assembly debate

By Kashif Hussain

LAHORE: A land scam worth billions of rupees in Defence Housing Authority (DHA) Lahore is admitted by the provincial government in the Punjab Assembly and the speaker announced to refer the case to Anti-Corruption Department for thorough inquiry and legal action.

The Punjab government has admitted this scam after the issue was highlighted by a treasury-bench legislator Sheikh Allauddin through an adjournment motion a week ago.
In reply to this motion on Thursday, the Law Minister Rana Sanaullah admitted government’s irregularities in the matter.

He said apparently it was confirmed by the concerned authorities of the department in their reply to Assembly that some irregularities had been done in the transfer of 350 kanal piece of land owned by the Evacuee Trust Property Board. He said he was not able to read this answer as it was lengthy so the mover (Allauddin) should read it personally and provided the written answer to him.

Sanaullah also recommended the House that because of irregularities which have been apparently disclosed, an inquiry should be held through the Revenue Department.
Meanwhile, the mover stressed the government to constitute a special committee of the House to probe the matter properly.

Allaudin also said it was not only a simple case but a fraud of billions of rupees belonging to national exchequer so proper inquiry should be held. The law minister also accepted the stance of the mover who also belongs to the treasury benches.

See: http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2013%5C08%5C16%5Cstory_16-8-2013_pg13_2

06/08/2013

Arrest warrants of ex-EOBI head issued

ISLAMABAD - The Federal Anti-Corruption Court resumed the hearing of EOBI case on Tuesday. The court once again issued non-bailable warrants of former EOBI chairman Zafar Gondal and Qasim Javed. The court directed the FIA to produce both the accused on August 16. The Supreme Court had taken a suo motu notice of the EOBI scandal over reports that the institution had caused a loss of Rs 40 billion to the national exchequer by investing huge amounts in private sector projects without approval of its board of trustees. -

See more at: http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2013/08/06/news/national/arrest-warrants-of-ex-eobi-head-issued/#sthash.mqSZw3bZ.dpuf

02/08/2013

For the sake of employees: Supreme Court goes soft on DHA

ISLAMABAD, Aug 1: A bench of the Supreme Court Thursday brought joy to the worried employees of the Defence Housing Authority (DHA) establishment in the twin cities, by agreeing to unfreeze the DHA bank accounts to the extent that they get their salaries before Eid.
Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, who heads the bench, accepted a DHA request for the same and wrote in the order that “keeping in view the hardship of the employees, as well as the widows and the orphans, we relax the condition (for the DHA) to withdraw Rs52.8 million.” The order also allowed the banks to accept deposits in the DHA accounts.
But the order bound the establishment of the DHA Islamabad-Rawalpindi to furnish to the court the balance amount left in the DHA bank accounts, after deducting the Rs52.8 million salary paycheck from its total deposits of Rs260 million on July 19.
That day the court had ordered all DHA accounts frozen until it deposited a staggering amount of Rs22.29 billion with the court.
In requesting a limited review of that freeze order, DHA counsel Irfan Qadir read out from the preamble of the DHA Act of 2013, concerning the purpose of establishment of DHA.
It stated that the purpose was “to carry out schemes and projects of land development inter alia for the welfare of the bereaved families of martyrs, war injured, disabled and other persons of the defence forces of Pakistan” by providing them financial security in recognition of their selfless service for the defence of the nation.
The bench had ordered the freeze during suo motu hearings in allegedly corrupt investments made by the EOBI (Employees Old Age Benefit Institute) in the DHA land and property projects, without seeking approval of its Board of Trustees.
A probe conducted by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) suggested that EOBI made investments in two different DHA schemes.
One deal, worth Rs15.473 billion and signed on January 19, 2012, involved the purchase of 321 kanals of lands in the DHA Islamabad.
A second deal signed on March 15 this year involved EOBI paying Rs6.82 billion for 23 commercial plots of eight marla each, 12 residential plots of two kanals each and 162 three-bedroom and 29 five-bedroom villas in Sector F, Phase-I DHA Rawalpindi.
FIA’s Additional Director General Law Muhammad Azam Khan submitted an evaluation report by the National Engineering Services Pakistan (Nespak) comparing the old and present market value of the DHA properties. Final report will be submitted later.
Implementing the EOBI-DHA deals also involved, in complicated ways, the Capital Development Authority, Bahria Town and the construction company Habib Rafiq.
In its Thursday’s proceedings, the bench also ordered unfreezing of the accounts of Messers Eden Housing Limited of Lahore after Advocate Tariq Mehmood told the court that the developers had deposited an amount of Rs976 million with the court registrar and a remaining amount of Rs900 million will be submitted before the next date of hearing which is August 21.
The counsel also prayed that the accounts of the society be released enabling it to make payments to its employees and construction labour before Eid.

See: http://dawn.com/news/1033540/for-the-sake-of-employees-supreme-court-goes-soft-on-dha

Why DHA deals with EOBI and CDA are a scam

Advocate Zulfikar Khalid Maluka, appearing as publico probono (in public interest), told the court that the properties sold to EOBI by DHA allegedly belonged to the DHA itself.
He explained that the total land handed over to the DHA by the CDA on June 22, 2007 was 1,937 kanals and nine marlas. The area measuring 321 kanals, which is the subject of EOBI scam, is part of that land which was never acquired by DHA.
Land measuring 1,937 kanals and nine marlas was allegedly exchanged between CDA and DHA on the condition that the housing authority would develop 482 plots of one kanal each.
No one knows for certain, Mr Maluka said, whether CDA got the developed plots from the DHA or not.
But DHA and its partners certainly became rich after selling 321 kanals to EOBI out of 1,937 kanals and nine marlas.
Mr Maluka insisted that the entire transaction between the CDA and the DHA was in sheer violation of CDA land and planning rules.

31/07/2013

EOBI scam case: Pre-audit system restored, says chairman

ISLAMABAD: Munir Qureshi, chairman of the Employees’ Old Age Benefit Institution (EOBI), informed the Supreme Court Wednesday that corrupt elements in the institution were under investigation and that the auditor general had been instructed to conduct a special audit.
A three-member of the apex court, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, heard the case pertaining to corruption in the EOBI.
The apex court had taken a suo motu notice of the EOBI scam over reports that the institution had caused a loss of Rs 40 billion to the national exchequer by investing huge amounts in private sector projects without approval of its board of trustees (BoT).
During the hearing, Qureshi informed the court that former chairman of EOBI, Zafar Iqbal Gondal, was inducted in the institution on deputation basis just like him.
He added that EOBI was receiving contributions from 3.4 million registered workers, whereas the institution was paying out Rs 1 billion monthly as pension for 400, 000 workers.
Qureshi said that former chairman had even suspended the pre-audit system, which was now restored.
Defence Housing Authority lawyer Irfan Qadir said salaries of its workers could not be prepared due to the freezing of the DHA bank accounts.
Chief Justice Iftikhar asked Qadir as to how much money he had deposited in the court, upon which he replied that 2.6 billion rupees had been submitted so far. He added that Eid was approaching soon and the workers’ salaries would have to be prepared.
The court asked Qadir to submit in writing the request for payment of workers’ salaries and adjourned the hearing till tomorrow.

See: http://dawn.com/news/1033177/eobi-scam-case-pre-audit-system-restored-says-chairman

26/07/2013

CDA settles for 2 plots from DHA

ISLAMABAD, July 25: The Capital Development Authority (CDA) has asked the Defence Housing Authority (DHA) to provide the files of only two of the remaining 47 plots to settle a five-year-old dispute.

The CDA had provided DHA 2,412 kanals in exchange for 729 developed plots, which the civic authority has still not received.

Earlier, the CDA had demanded the physical inspection and the layout plans of the 729 plots, and CDA Member Estate Shaista Sohail had conveyed the authority’s concerns to DHA via a letter dated May 16.

The letter stated that the files for 682 of the total 729 plots had been handed over to CDA, and asked for the files of the remaining 47 plots.

Similarly, Shaista Sohail, during a meeting with Col (retired) Ijaz Hussain (Secretary DHA) on July 3, warned him that the agreement would be cancelled if the plots were not handed over.
However, on July 23, the CDA acknowledged receiving the files of 45 of the 47 plots and requested the remaining two be handed over.

An official of the civic body told Dawn that under its land disposal regulations, the CDA could not provide land to the DHA as the land sharing formula, which was introduced for acquiring land from villagers, was not applicable.

He said the agreement could not be challenged in court, so the civic authority had changed its earlier tough stance by comprising on the files and giving up its demands for layout plans Moreover, he said senior officers of CDA had received plots in DHA and Bahria Town for brokering the deal, and now wanted an amicable solution to the matter.

CDA director general administration Naeem Rauf, the military spokesman and DHA officials did not comment on the matter despite repeated attempts.

See: http://dawn.com/news/1032033/cda-settles-for-2-plots-from-dha

Action to be taken against display of arms by land mafia

ISLAMABAD, July 25: The capital police have decided to take strict action against the display of arms by land mafia groups operating in Islamabad and would prepare a list of police officers who were on the mafia’s pay role.

A senior police officer told Dawn on Thursday that the police had decided to take strict action against the private force of land mafias who displayed arms in the city, especially in the rural areas.

“The private guards of land grabbers, armed with modern sophisticated weapons, threaten local villagers and obtain their lands forcefully,” the officer said.

Furthermore, he said the private guards also abducted villagers who showed resistance and at a number of occasions, they had ambushed villagers for the vested interests of their employers, leading to injuries and death.

However, a few officers were of the view that the decision against the display of arms was made only to please the minister and no action would be taken since the majority of policemen was on the mafia’s pay role.

“It is an open secret that SHOs of Shahzad Town, Kural, Loi Bher, Sihala and Banigala, the Sub-Divisional Police Officers (SDPOs) of Shahzad Town and Rural Banigala, and the Superintendent (SP) Rural had been appointed on the recommendations of powerful politicians and land grabbers,” said a police official.

Moreover, officers said the directions to take action against policemen who were on the mafia’s pay role would not be implemented because those responsible to ensure this were themselves appointed on the recommendation of land mafias.

“There is a chance that the police will use these directions to settle their score with their rivals within the force,” a police official said.

However, it seems action has already been taken as Inspector Mehboob Ahmed, Sub-Inspector Muzaffar and Assistant Sub-Inspector Daud Sabir were suspended on Thursday. Furthermore, Deputy Superintendent of Police Arshad Ali Khokhar was served notice and asked to appear before the senior officers.

The inspector, SI and ASI were suspended as they allegedly helped the land mafia occupy plots while working in the Koral police station a year ago. They also misused their powers and victimised villagers by registering fake cases to pressurise the residents into vacating their lands. However, they took no action against the land mafia.

The DSP was served a notice for his failure to keep an eye on his subordinates and their illegal activities.

See: http://dawn.com/news/1032025/action-to-be-taken-against-display-of-arms-by-land-mafia

24/07/2013

Lay of the land: Development authorities

NEW bits of disturbing news from the real estate or housing sector are cause for a deeper look at the manner in which the city development authorities in Pakistan are performing their basic duties. Doubts have been cast at a deal between Islamabad’s CDA and DHA involving money from the EOBI, the fund for pensioners. There is an assertion the CDA ‘illegally’ transferred its own job of developing acquired land to the DHA. More questions arise and once again we see a formula where a city development authority ends up as a mere go-between, a commission agent: it obtains land from individual owners on the promise of paying them in the shape of developed plots; it then outsources development and gets a few developed plots of its own in the bargain. Through this ingenious partnership and using its official status a city development authority can earn without much effort and without even troubling itself with its original assignment ie development. The current status of development authorities in Pakistan does not conform to the nature of work that is expected of them.

In fact, the job of a city development authority is not to facilitate real estate business but to come up with projects to meet the growing housing and similar needs of the people. Any diversion will corrupt the system, and in many ways. One consequence of a city development authority not functioning properly is evident in the mushrooming of unapproved housing schemes. Take the case of the Lahore Development Authority which is now vowing to move against illegal schemes in its jurisdiction. There are at least 175 of these societies now accused of fleecing people by selling them often cheaper but always underdeveloped plots of land, said a recent report. Obviously such a huge pile-up could not have been possible had the LDA been more vigilant and more committed to its brief of ensuring standards in an area that is open to anyone who cares to have a look.

See: http://dawn.com/news/1031552/lay-of-the-land-development-authorities

Evacuee trust lost Rs1.9bn in deal with DHA

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) discovered that the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) had failed to safeguard its interest by investing in a real estate business of the Defence Housing Authority (DHA) in Lahore, and ended up with a staggering loss of Rs1.9 billion in the business.

The information came through an inquiry submitted by FIA Additional Director General (Legal) Muhammad Azam before the Supreme Court on Tuesday during proceedings of a case initiated on a complaint filed by Sardar Mastan Singh, President of the Pakistan Sikh Council, who is based in the Sikh holy place of Nankana Sahib.

Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, who was heading a three-judge bench, reiterated that the court was under a constitutional obligation to safeguard interests of the minority community.

Surprisingly, all transactions and deals between the ETPB and the DHA were executed during the period when ETPB chairman Asif Hashmi was in charge. Asif Hashmi was appointed by the previous PPP government and is now believed to be staying in the UAE.

On Feb 6, the Supreme Court had imposed a ban on the DHA Lahore from altering Sikh properties in its possession in any way. Advocate Hafiz S. A. Rehman appeared on behalf of the ETPB, Advocate Shahram Sarwar represented the Sikh community while the DHA Lahore was represented by Advocate Asim Hafeez.

During proceedings of the case, the Supreme Court dropped hints it may order the FIA to register criminal cases and proceed against those responsible for causing a huge loss to the ETPB or order the DHA to return all lands it had acquired from the ETPB, though Asif Hashmi will still be facing consequences for the deal.
An inquiry report submitted by Additional Director General (Legal) Muhammad Azam before the Supreme Court suggested that originally the ETPB owned 1152 kanals and 15 marlas of land at the Village Lidher, 2862 kanals at Motasinghwala and 244 kanals and 15 marlas at Dera Chahal in Tehsil Lahore Cantt.

The total ETPB land situated at Mouza Lidhar and Motasinghwala and transferred to the DHA, Lahore, comes to 843 kanals and 15 marlas against 25 per cent exemption plots files. Twenty-five per cent exemption plots means that the ETBP will get 25 per cent of plots in exchange after the lands were developed for the housing society by the DHA.

But 244 kanala and 15 marlas of land at Dera Chahal could not be transferred to DHA due to protest by the Sikh community because the land belongs to Gurdwara Bebe Nanki.

Though the June 9, 2006, agreement between the ETPB and DHA could not be executed and the exchange/transfer of the lands was stopped because of the public hue and cry, the actual agreement was not cancelled. This led to a liability of Rs18.8 million on ETPB for expenditures incurred by the DHA Lahore for vacation of these lands from land grabbers/occupants.

The Ministry of Minorities approved an ambiguous ETPB board resolution on April 28, 2009, for acquisition of ETPB lands by the DHA, Lahore Cantt, against 25 per cent exemption plot files without considering an earlier offer by DHA extended on July 20, 2007, to acquire lands against 33 per cent exemption plot files.

The FIA report also suggested that the DHA paid compensation of ETPB lands at Mauza Lidher and Motasinghwala to unauthorised men to the tune of Rs657 million (Rs126 million in cash and 59 plots of one kanal each) without justification when beneficiaries do not exist in the list of legitimate lessees of ETPB.

“Therefore distinct possibility could not be ruled out of having receipt commission/kickbacks by DHA and ETPB and officials of the ministry concerned through these beneficiaries,” the FIA report alleged.

In some cases DHA Lahore paid compensation to land grabbers prior to the execution of the agreement between DHA Lahore and ETPB whereas Rs22.3 million was paid through cash showing mala fide on part of the ETPB and DHA Lahore.

The FIA report said that it discovered massive irregularities in spending of ETPB funds due to non-observance of procedural formalities as envisioned in the Pak-PWD Code and Management and Disposal of Urban Evacuee Trust Properties 1977. The proceedings will again be taken up by the court on Thursday.

See: http://dawn.com/news/1031462/evacuee-trust-lost-rs19bn-in-deal-with-dha/?commentPage=1&storyPage=2

23/07/2013

CDA covers its tracks

ISLAMABAD, July 22: While the Employees Old-Age Benefits Institution (EOBI) is being taken to task in the Supreme Court, it seems as if no one has noticed the rules violated by the CDA while making a deal with the Defence Housing Authority (DHA).

CDA’s role in this latest scandal has also come to light as the court picked up the issue. But the civic agency, it seems, was aware of its weak position and tried to cover its tracks.
It held meetings and wrote letters to show that it had made efforts for the retrieval of its lost land from the DHA and even warned the latter of legal actions.

It is important to note that the land measuring 321.3 kanals, which the DHA sold to the EOBI for Rs15.74 billion, was parceled out from the 868 kanals that were partly owned by the CDA and Commoners Town (CT), a private housing society.

This CDA and CT land was acquired by the DHA in 2008 after signing agreements with both.
And by this year, the CDA was trying to push the issue with the DHA - if the civic authority’s records are to be believed.

On May 16, shortly after the May 11 elections, the CDA member estate asked the DHA to provide the layout plans and arrange physical inspection of the developed plots promised to the CDA in exchange for the land it (DHA) had taken six years back.

On July 5, CDA Director Estate Management-I Mohammad Latif Abid wrote to Brigadier Saadullah Fatimi, the administrator of DHA, that “the developed plots (as per agreement) be handed over… to CDA, failing which CDA shall have to review the alternate options.”
In 2008, the DHA offered CDA 729 developed plots in its extension project in exchange for the land.

The CDA immediately handed over 2,412 kanals to the DHA but six years later it is still waiting for the allotment letters and layout plans from the DHA. Not a single plot has been handed over to the CDA.

The letter by the CDA director estate management was written two days after a meeting held by CDA Member Estate Shaista Sohail which was also attended by secretary DHA Col (retired) Ijaz.The agenda of the meeting was to review “the inordinate/inexplicable delay on part of DHA… in defiance of the agreement between CDA and DHA.”

It is not difficult to guess the atmosphere of the meeting as the minutes record that, “Member (Estate) CDA opened the session with a very serious view that DHA’s non-implementation of the signed agreement is an unacceptable violation of the agreement.

“She underscored that the DHA committed 729 plots… in lieu of the land. However, the agreement has been violated for the last six years by DHA.”

The member (estate), according to the minutes of the July 3 meeting, also warned the DHA that “… failing (a prompt reply from DHA) CDA shall review the alternate options which may extend to the cancellation of the agreement and/or filing of a writ petition with the court of law for non-conforming to… the agreement.”

But more serious is the fact that legal experts find the CDA-DHA agreement illegal.
Mohammad Ramzan Chaudhry, member Pakistan Bar Council and a former legal adviser to the CDA, is one such lawyer. He said the Supreme Court in its judgment on the E-11 northern strip case had declared that the CDA, being a development authority, cannot assign its role to any other organisation.

The CDA Board in 2009 had approved the development of the northern strip on a joint venture basis with MPCHS (Multi-Purpose Cooperative Housing Society). This agreement was declared null and void by the SC.

The court in its judgment said, “The CDA, which is a statutory body established by law, is mandated not only to make arrangements for the planning and development of the capital city but is also authorised/compelled to perform functions of a municipal committee.”
Chaudhry quoted the judgment and added that “Under the Islamabad Land Disposal Regulations 2005, the authority cannot give its land to any developers.”

According to him, the agreement with the DHA was even worse than the Joint Venture (JV) deal between the CDA and the MPCHS.

He disclosed that the CDA had handed over 2,412 kanals to the DHA under its land-sharing formula. However, the lawyer pointed out that the formula had been introduced for acquiring land from villagers for the development of sectors.

In other words, this formula was introduced to allow the CDA to buy land when it was short of cash. It would promise the landowners a developed plot in exchange for the land.
Chaudhry added: “In this case, the CDA took over the role of a landowner and gave its land to the DHA in exchange for developed plots later.”

CDA Member Estate Shaista Sohail could not be contacted for comments despite repeated attempts while Asiya Gul, a CDA spokesman, expressed ignorance about the matter.
When contacted for comments, a spokesman for the ISPR promised to get back but did not so till the filing of this story.

Secretary DHA Col (retired) Ijaz, however, according to the minutes of July 3 meeting with the CDA Member Estate, “admitted the delay and had no cogent reasons to defend the delay. He gave no firm time lines except expressing the hope that the matter shall be formally responded to by the DHA shortly.

See: http://dawn.com/news/1031256/cda-covers-its-tracks/?commentPage=1&storyPage=2

Detail of EOBI payments

Rs15.74 billion to the DHA for 321 kanals and Rs6.8 billion for commercial plots and villas in January and April 2012

Rs1 billion to Abdul Qayyum for the purchase of Crown Plaza in F-7 Markaz in August 2012
Rs2 billion for purchase of four acres in Karachi in May 2012

Rs1.4 billion on purchase of 40 kanal commercial plot in Lahore in November 2011

Rs610 million for purchase of hotel in Lahore in November 2011

Rs10.618 million for the construction of another hotel in Lahore in 2010

Rs15 million spent for purchase of Toyota Prado 4,100cc in December 2010

Rs6.05 million for development of recreational facilities in Islamabad in 2011 and 2012.

See: http://dawn.com/news/1031254/detail-of-eobi-payments

22/07/2013

Malik Riaz let off over alleged tax evasion worth Rs119.4bn: report

ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari dismissed the report submitted by the Suddle Commission in the Arsalan Iftikhar case, and has given property magnate Malik Riaz Hussain a clean chit in a suspected tax evasion of Rs 119.4 billion,according to a Daily Times report by the Daily Times Monitor.

The president accepted Malik Riaz’s representation, and dismissed the much questioned December 4, 2012 decision made by the federal tax ombudsman (FTO), the Monitor stated in its article citing reports containing references to official Presidency documents.

The Suddle Commission had been formed by the Supreme Court in order to probe an alleged Rs 342 million business deal between Malik Riaz and the son of Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Dr Arsalan Iftikhar.

The commission had incriminated Malik Riaz in a colossal tax evasion that amounted to Rs 119.4 billion, and proposed that a penalty for concealment of assets in wealth statements filed with income tax returns be enforced on the property tycoon in its interim results.
The documents cited by the Daily Times Monitor also stated that a joint representation questioning a suo motu order passed by the FTO had been filed by Malik Riaz and the principal officer of Bahria Town (Pvt.) Ltd, under Section 14(I) of the Federal Ombudsman Institutional Reform Act 2013. This was concurrently corroborated by the presidential order, which suggested that the representation had indeed been filed.

The notice and the representation explained that the suo motu case concerning an alleged business deal between Malik Riaz and Dr Arsalan Iftikhar – an attempt to influence the judicial process – was disposed of by the Supreme Court on June 14, 2012, and the attorney general of Pakistan was subsequently directed to set the state machinery in motion in order to ensure that “all those who may have committed any illegal acts, including Malik Riaz, Dr Arsalan Iftikhar and Salman Ali Khan, are pursued and brought to book with full force and rigour of the law”.

The attorney general wrote to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) chairman regarding the matter on June 18, 2012. Subsequently, Dr Arsalan Iftikhar filed CRP No 167/2012, which was allowed by the apex court on August 30, 2012. The FTO was appointed as a one-man commission, who was expected to hold an inquiry into the matter.

According to the documents, the commission had submitted three interim reports. After the third report was received, it was noted that it was no longer necessary for the commission to proceed further in the inquiry, and the matter was therefore disposed of.

According to the FTO Ordinance of 2000, the FTO’s responsibility is to identify, examine, compensate and correct any injustice done to a person through the maladministration by functionaries that oversee the laws of taxation. Referring to the law, the main objection raised in the representation was that the federal tax ombudsman did not have any authority to commence suo motu proceedings and issue notices to the petitioners.
The Presidency’s letter further argued that the term maladministration has been defined in Section 2(3) of the afore-mentioned ordinance, while Section 9(1) gives the tax ombudsman the authority to investigate any charges of maladministration on the part of the Revenue Division or any tax employee, and this he can inter alia do on his own motion.

When the Law and Justice Division sought the FTO’s comments, the FTO Secretariat reported on March 16, 2013 that the proceedings had only been taken against the maladministration committed by the FBR, adding the board would be responsible for taking any action prescribed by the Income Tax Ordinance 2001.

Section 32 of FTO Ordinance, 2000 states, “The Revenue Division or any person aggrieved by a recommendation of the federal tax ombudsman may, within thirty days of the recommendation, make a representation to the president who may pass such order thereon as he may deem fit.”

Formerly, the petitioners had filed an application that challenged the said order, with the FTO issuing a subsequent notice. The Law and Justice Division dealt with the matter, thus arriving at the conclusion that the action was ultra vires and void.

“The representation, therefore, is competent at this stage... This secretariat agreed with the said conclusion,” the report affirmed, referring to the Presidency documents.

“It appears that the FTO has taken upon himself to continue with the proceedings conducted as a one-man commission, which is beyond the ambit of the FTO Ordinance 2000,” the letter stated. “The proceedings initiated and the notice issued, therefore, is without jurisdiction. The FTO Secretariat has not filed any comments despite notice. In its response to the earlier petition, the FTO Secretariat had given out that the case is only against maladministration of the FBR... Accordingly, the president has been pleased to accept representation and to set aside impugned decision of FTO commencing proceeding against the petitioners on the basis of third interim report.”

See: http://dawn.com/news/1031077/malik-riaz-let-off-over-alleged-tax-evasion-worth-rs1194bn-report/?commentPage=1&storyPage=1

Shady transactions: DHA’s dealings

EVEN as the revelations of the Abbottabad Commission about the sweeping powers of the military and its multiple failures are being discussed, the armed forces have been caught up in another maelstrom. The EOBI scandal landed up in the Supreme Court and led straight to Islamabad’s Defence Housing Authority. The revelations highlighted how EOBI funds had apparently been lost in a number of shady deals and how a huge chunk of the money was ‘invested’ in DHA land. When the Authority expressed its inability to pay back the Rs22.29bn, the court froze its accounts..

The court case has highlighted once again the lack of transparency in the affairs of the Islamabad DHA and its widespread ramifications. The land bought by the EOBI, according to the information provided in the court, was at prices far higher than the market price and it appears that the land is disputed. In addition, the FIA investigations reveal that the agreement between the DHA and Bahria Town precludes the DHA from selling land to a third party including the EOBI. Neither has the land handed over to the EOBI been developed as promised. The picture is far from clear and it will take some time before the allegations and counter-allegations can be verified. But this is not the first time that the DHA Islamabad has faced allegations of wrongdoing. To give one example, the investors of the DHA Valley (a residential scheme launched for soldiers and other junior ranks) have also complained of being swindled because of the agreement between Bahria Town and DHA.

In fact, rumours about the wrongdoings in DHA schemes have been the talk of Islamabad for years now and the absence of real information and hard facts have only allowed them to flourish. The military leadership needs to realise that the lack of transparency and accountability in running DHA are now tarnishing its image. Unless the military leadership is willing to launch an inquiry to determine if those running DHA played any role in the EOBI scandal; satisfy the investors of the DHA Valley; shed light on the agreements between DHA and private parties such as Bahria Town and Habib Rafiq; and bring some transparency to the running of the Authority, the allegations and rumours will not die down. This will only bring disrepute to the entire institution of the armed forces.

See: http://dawn.com/news/1030780/shady-transactions-dhas-dealings

20/07/2013

Massive scam: Supreme Court freezes DHA bank accounts

ISLAMABAD: The alleged multibillion-rupee scam in the Employees’ Old-Age Benefits Institution (EOBI) took a nasty turn for the Defence Housing Authority (DHA), Islamabad/Rawalpindi on Friday.The Supreme Court ordered freezing of the DHA’s bank accounts following its failure to deposit Rs22 billion with the registrar in compliance with the apex court’s earlier orders.
“All the accounts of the DHA Islamabad/Rawalpindi are being frozen till the authority deposits the money with the registrar of this court. During the course of the day the list of the DHA accounts is to be filed with the registrar,” ordered a three-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.
The bench was hearing a suo motu case regarding an alleged Rs40 billion scam in the EOBI. The bench ordered that all the banks in which the DHA maintains accounts file daily reports with the registrar, while the DHA will not be able to open new accounts.
In the meantime if the DHA wants to deposit the money in question, it can file an affidavit, deposit the money and get its accounts unfrozen, the bench observed.

The DHA counsel, Advocate Ahmer Bilal Soofi, informed the court that his client did not have the money in cash to deposit with the registrar. On July 17, the bench had given the DHA 48 hours to deposit the money.
Furthermore Advocate Sufi said that the DHA had already issued allotment letters for 50 acres of land the EOBI purchased in 2011 and 2012.
“You have only given them pieces of papers. The allotment letters are not equal to transfer of title of the land as possession has not been handed over to the EOBI,” observed Justice Jawwad S Khawaja, another member of the bench.

Justice Chaudhry took note of the last payment made by the EOBI to the DHA on March 15, 2013 – the last day in office of the Pakistan Peoples Party-led government. The hearing was adjourned till July 26.
The inquiry report submitted by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) regarding the EOBI deal with the DHA and purchase of land in Chakwal claimed that the deals were not transparent.
Flouting its rules, the EOBI invested in the private sector and purchased ‘raw land’ while paying price for ‘developed plots’ after an evaluation of the land’s market value by inexperienced and unqualified persons, FIA’s Additional Director General (Legal) Azam Khan informed the bench.
According to the FIA report – a copy of which is available with The Express Tribune – the EOBI paid the DHA Rs15.473 billion on January 18, 2012 for purchase of 321 kanals [50 acres] of land and another Rs6.82 billion on March 15, 2013 for the purchase of plots in Sector-F, Phase-I of DHA, Rawalpindi.
“The EOBI got the land evaluated by M/s Diamen Associates. The managing director of the firm, Wamiq, and his employee, Shujja, were questioned by the FIA. It was learnt that Shujja carried out the evaluation study while he does not have the intermediate certificate and has no relevant experience. Further, the EOBI paid the evaluator Rs44 million,” states the FIA report.
According to the evaluator, his firm had informed the EOBI that there had been no sale and purchase of property in the area where the Institution wanted to purchase land from the DHA.
The DHA administrator has admitted that the EOBI had not been given possession of land, states the FIA report. About the title of the land, he said that under the DHA rules the ownership always remained with the authority.
The report also points out that the EOBI purchased plots from the DHA in a disputed area as some local residents alleged that the DHA never purchased the land from the Capital Development Authority (CDA).
The report further points out that the EOBI purchased Crown Plaza in F-7 Markaz and paid Rs1.02 billion on October 16, 2012. EOBI officials received Rs150 million in kickbacks in the deal, the report alleges. In his statement, the seller, Abdul Qayum, confessed to the payment of kickbacks to EOBI officials. The deal was finalised by Wahid Khursheed, Adviser/Director General (Investment) EOBI.
According to the report, the EOBI didn’t seek prior permission from its Board of Trustees for the deal.
The report also highlights the deal for the purchase of a one acre plot of land in Kallar Kahar, Chakwal, from Maqsoodul Hassan Minhas, brother of Raja Azeem, who is the son-in-law of former premier Raja Pervaiz Ashraf. The land was purchased at Rs200,000 per marla, while its market value was Rs30,000 marla.
The EOBI also bought 1.9 kanals of land on Talagang Road, Chakwal, from Raja Sanaul Haq, also a brother of Raja Azeem, for Rs15,50,000 per marla while its market price was Rs60,000 per marla. Interestingly, the seller had demanded Rs12,00,000 per marla, reveals the FIA report.
It adds that the amount mentioned in the registered sale deed is less than the amount paid by the EOBI.

See: http://tribune.com.pk/story/579461/massive-scam-supreme-court-freezes-dha-bank-accounts/

19/07/2013

EOBI Scam: SC orders freezing of DHA Rawalpindi and Islamabad Accounts

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court of Pakistan has ordered that the accounts held by Defence Housing Authority (DHA) Rawalpindi and Islamabad be frozen, reportedExpress News on Friday. The order was given during the hearing of the Employees Old Age Benefit Institute (EOBI) scam case

The court further added that the accounts will remain frozen till the owed amount, Rs22.24 billion is not paid back.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday had ordered DHA to submit Rs22.24 billion that EOBI had paid to it in a shadowy deal to purchase 321 kanals of land.
Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry directed DHA’s advocate Ahmer Bilal Sufi to deposit the money with the court’s registrar office by July 19 or furnish the details of the DHA’s assets. “The assets can be attached if the money was not deposited,” he added.

Advocate Sufi tried to convince the bench that the land was worth purchasing, the deal would benefit the EOBI and its investment was secure. He said that the developmental work on the land had been 70% to 80% done and was due to complete within 3 months. He further added that Rs 9 billion and Rs 11 billion had also been respectively provided to the DHA and Habib Rafique Group and Bahria Town for the developmental work.

“The DHA does not have such a huge equity right now to deposit with the SC’s registrar and some time may be given to the authority for explaining its position,” Sufi argued on Thursday.

See: http://tribune.com.pk/story/579096/eobi-scam-sc-orders-freezing-of-dha-accounts/

real estate of billions....EOBI another form of NICL scam, involves....Brother of ex-PPP minister spent EOBI money like a king

ISLAMABAD: Absconding former chairman of the Employees Old-Age Benefit Institution (EOBI) Zafar Iqbal Gondal, who is sought by investigators for questioning about alleged massive shady deals involving billions, remained on an unprecedented shopping spree during his tenure as he spent Rs34b from the coffers of this organisation to purchase properties for it.

While Gondal “invested” Rs34,387,184,400 EOBI funds in real estate in less than three years of his stay in this position, the institution purchased commercial, residential, industrial, agricultural and amenity lands for Rs9,490,265,619 since its inception in 1982 till 2009, official documents available with The News show.

Efforts were made to reach Gondal to know his side of the story, but he was inaccessible and his cell phone was switched off.

Another scandal, akin to the scam involving NICL (National Insurance Corporation Company), looms large on the horizon where properties worth much less than the money paid by EOBI, were purchased by Gondal without following the due process, specifically the approval of the Board of Trustees.

The real estate bought by Gondal from 2010 to April 2013 from the EOBI funds was shown to have the market value of Rs35,520,710,009 while the worth of similar properties bought from 1982 to 2009 was stated to be Rs14,278,615,889.

The Supreme Court, which has taken a suo moto notice of the EOBI corruption scandal, has ordered the Defence Housing Authority (DHA) Islamabad to deposit Rs22 bn within 48 hours with its Registrar’s office or face freezing of all its accounts, and directed six individuals to deposit Rs7,087m they received from the EOBI for the purchase of property.

Zafar Iqbal is the younger brother of former federal minister Nazar Mohammad Gondal.In just four months, from January to April this year, Zafar Iqbal spent Rs11.334 bn from the EOBI funds to purchase properties. His last transaction was carried out on March 15, the last day of the previous government.

According to the documents, on March 15, the EOBI purchased 23 commercial plots and 538 residential plots and villas of the DHA Rawalpindi Phase-1 for Rs6.825b.

On February 20, plots of various sizes were purchased in the Pak Arab Housing Scheme, Ferozpur Road, Lahore, for Rs1.15b. They included 515 plots of 5 Marlas, 64 plots of 10 Marlas and 75 commercial plots from 2.5 to 5 Marlas.

On February 7, the EOBI spent Rs900m on purchasing residential plots located in Eden Villas Housing Scheme Faisalabad. These included 2,162 Marlas (355 residential plot of various sizes) and 339.19 Marlas (65 commercial plots of various sizes).

On February 9, Gondal spent another Rs1.3b of EOBI funds on purchasing commercial plots located in River Edge Housing Scheme (At Park View Villas) 17-KM Multan Road Lahore. These included 904 Marlas, 226 commercial plots located in Phase-II of the project.

On January 18, 3,500 shares of the Faqir Plaza and Company along with shares and property owned by the company were purchased by the EOBI for Rs36m.

On January 30, Gondal invested Rs790m of EOBI by purchasing open plot No. 101 having old building at Mall Road Lahore measuring 9.02 Kanals. On the same day, the EOBI bought for Rs333m plot No. 54, which is the residential property located on Main Gulberg Road Lahore measuring 12 Kanals.

The EOBI bought properties worth Rs21.28b in the year 2012. On January 18, the EOBI purchased 321.3 Kanals from DHA, Islamabad in Phase-I and Phase-II Extensions, DHA Expressway and DHA Valley for Rs15,743,700,000. This is the transaction about which the apex court Wednesday directed the DHA to deposit Rs22b with its registrar.

On January 13, Gondal invested Rs120.9m of EOBI to purchase 2,428 sq. yds. of plots Nos. 4 and 8 located next to Mobilink business centre, TCS, Warid Telecom & opposite to KFC at Sukkur.

On January 4, the EOBI spent Rs2b to buy 19,360 sq. yds. comprising Survey # 536-537 in Naclass 153, Deh Mehran District Malir, Karachi East.

On May 18, 2012, Gondal purchased Crown Plaza located in F-7 Markaz Islamabad, measuring 600 sq. yds, and paid Rs1b.

On June 29, the EOBI invested Rs1b on buying 222 plots of different sizes in Eden Garden Housing Scheme, Eden Main Boulevard Housing Scheme and Edenabad Extension Housing Scheme Lahore.

On July 16, the institution spent Rs1.3b in buying 742 plots of various sizes in River Edge Housing Scheme, 2 KM from Thokar Niaz Baig, Motorway Interchange on Multan Road Lahore.

Two transactions were carried out on the same day, December 18, involving Rs90.245m. An amount of Rs30.2m was spent on purchasing one Kanal and 19 Marlas land on Talagang Road, opposite Caltex Pump, Chakwal. The EOBI also invested Rs60.45m and purchased 8 Kanals in Mouza Kalar Kahar Tehsil Kalar Kahar, Chakwal.

Documents show that properties worth Rs1.771b were purchased by the EOBI from July 1, 2010 to December 31, 2011, which was the initial period of Gondal’s posting as its chairman.

On September 16, 2011, the EOBI invested Rs250m and purchased three Kanals and 16 Marlas in Hadbast Mouza, Lahore; spent Rs80m on October 28 to purchase 2 Kanals, 8 Marlas, Main Lower Hall, Lahore; and bought 40.825 Kanals in Mouza Sehjpal, DHA, Interchange on Ring Road, Lahore for Rs1.437b.

See: http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-2-190903-real-estate-of-billions

18/07/2013

Apologies! I haven't got to updating this page as I was travelling, but with the Supreme Court looking into the EOBI scam (finally), a flurry of updates today: Surprising to see such negative press about DHA, HRL, Malik Riaz and Bahria Town in the Express Tribune to begin with.

DHA islamabad told to pay back Rs. 22 billion by Supreme Court

Express Tribune. Page 9. 18/07/2013

Also from Karachi:

Newspaper article Express Tribune DHA Landgrab

Express Tribune. Page 12. 18/07/2013

And in the DAWN:

Newspaper article DAWN Rs. 22 billion DHA Islamabad pay back

DAWN. Islamabad Metro. 18/07/2013

22/07/2013

More news in the papers today regarding Malik Riaz answering FIA's questions. Interesting to note the blatantly positive coverage in the Express Tribune, versus other papers.

Bahria Town pays for its employees’ Hajj

Every year Bahria Town sends its employees — selected by random draw — on its own expenses for Hajj.The chief executive of Bahria Town, Malik Riaz, while recording his statement before the FIA Special Investigation Unit, said the company bore the Hajj expenses of 200 people including 32 employees in 2009. In 2010, the real estate giant had sent 248 people for Hajj including 56 employees.
Giving details, Malik Riaz said payment for the air tickets of 200 people was made through cheque of Rs17,500,000 numbered 0191690 dated 4-11-2009 drawn in favour of PIA through his Accounts Manager Ghulam Mustafa.
He also said that payment for the 248 pilgrims was made through a cheque of Rs16,800,000 number 0191721 dated11-10-2010 drawn in the name of PIA and cheque number 0191720 of Rs1,694,000 for PIA and cheque number 0191722 of Rs3,200,000 for Southern Travels Private Limited.
Apart from the airfare, he said, Bahria Town paid the Hajj expenses including transport and boarding in Mina and Arafat for most of the people it had sent for the pilgrimage. The company bore full expenses of its employees.
Regarding the ministry of religious affairs’ claim in its letter that it paid for Bahria Town employees’ stay in Makkah and Madina in 2009 and 2010, Malik Riaz said he was willing to pay the amount from his pocket.
Malik Riaz said that he had paid for the Hajj expenses of Babar Qureshi and his wife. The Hajj visas of Bahria Town employees were processed through the interior ministry’s Private Secretary Raja Javed Iqbal.
He said that he has paid Rs2,552,416 to the religious affairs ministry via cheque number 0191738 for 32 employees (Rs79,763 per head) that went for Hajj in 2009. Similarly, for the year 2010, expenses for the stay in Madina for 56 employees of Bahria Town were paid vide cheque number 0191739 worth Rs644,000.
He said that he stands by his statement given on April 7, 2011. He said that he never had any mala fide intentions in paying expenses for the holy pilgrimage. Malik Riaz said he was willing to pay for the Hajj airfares worth Rs39,194,000, then why not much lesser amount for the boarding expenses for 88 of his employees.
The delay in payment was due to the late receipt of bills from the ministry of religious affairs and others.
Later talking to the media, Malik Riaz said that if sending people for Hajj was a crime, he would continue doing so.

See: http://tribune.com.pk/story/566709/bahria-town-pays-for-its-employees-hajj/

However in the report in the DAWN, only 32 of the 400 so people he paid to perform Hajj were his employees.

FIA grills property tycoon Malik Riaz

Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Friday grilled the property tycoon Malik Riaz Hussain in sponsored Haj case.
The Ministry of Interior had offered the Haj facility to 427 politicians, journalists and employees of Bahira Town in 2009 and 2010, but the payment from the sponsors was received after months’ delay.
Qasier Qadeer Qureshi, legal adviser to Bahria Town, confirmed that the property tycoon was quizzed by the FIA officials.
According to him, Malik Riaz informed the FIA investigators that he had cleared all the dues for the sponsored Haj.
Sources in the FIA told Dawn that Malik Riaz maintained before the FIA team that since he was unaware of the payment hence the delay.
The sources alleged that Malik Riaz made payment after Supreme Court took cognizance of the matter.
The issue of sponsored Haj was taken up by the Supreme Court in 2011 during the hearing of suo motu notice case related to the corruption of Haj arrangements.
On the directions of the Supreme Court the FIA in 2011 had also recorded the statement of those who availed the ‘free’ Haj facility.
The Religious Affairs Ministry had demanded outstanding bills worth millions from the interior ministry.
Former Religious Affairs Minister Hamid Saeed Kazmi when contacted said that the Interior Ministry and its sponsors had arranged travelling of the sponsored pilgrims from Pakistan to Saudi Arabia and back.
But the Religious Affairs Ministry provided them accommodation and local transport during their stay in KSA on the request of then Minister for Interior Rehman Malik.
Later, it had demanded from the Interior Ministry the standard charges for the facilities it provided to the government sponsored pilgrims, he added.
A senior FIA official on condition of anonymity said that the property tycoon and a former deputy speaker of National Assembly sponsored the Haj for the politicians and the journalists but did not pay the required amount either to the Ministry of Interior who had invited them or to the Ministry of Religious Affairs who provided accommodation to these pilgrims.
He said that after the statement of Malik Riaz, the FIA summoned the authorities of Interior Ministry and the Ministry of Religious Affairs to decide the fate of tycoon.
He explained that the accommodation provided to the 427 private persons including 32 employees of Bahria Town were arranged from the amount which the pilgrims had deposited with the national exchequer for performing Haj and misuse of the said amount was an offence.
Malik Riaz did not voluntarily return the amount to the government but FIA recovered from him the required payment, he added.
“In the light of the statements of the officials concerned of Interior Ministry and Religious Affairs Ministry, the investigators would determine whether any crime would be made out against the tycoon or not” the official maintained.

See: http://www.dawn.com/news/1019940/fia-grills-property-tycoon-malik-riaz

Haj Scandal: FIA grills Malik Riaz

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Friday grilled the founder of Bahria Town Malik Riaz in Haj scandal, Geo News reported.
Malik Riaz said that he had nothing to do with the Haj scandal, advising the investigation officer to hang those involved in the scandal.

FIA investigation officer Husain Asghar quizzed Riaz in its special investigation unit. Former deputy speaker of National Assembly Haji Nawaz Khokhar and Malik Riaz's counselor Zahid Bukhari were also present on the occasion. As many as one and half dozen of lawyers were also present outside the FIA office.

Talking to mediamen, Riaz claimed that he had sent 200 people including journalists to perform Haj, saying that he confesses this ‘crime’.

See: http://www.thenews.com.pk/article-106275-Haj-Scandal:-FIA-grills-Malik-Riaz

21/06/2013

Malik Riaz says he will answer FIA questions

ISLAMABAD: Famous businessman Malik Riaz has said that he would appear before a special investigation unit of Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Friday to answer questions related to the Haj scandal 2010.

Talking to The News, Riaz said he has been summoned by Special Investigation Unit (SIU) of FIA that is probing a multi-billion Haj corruption scandal but claimed that his only crime was to send people on Haj for free and he will continue to commit this crime.

However, FIA sources told The News that Riaz is being investigated for allegedly sending dozens of his men on special Haj flights sponsored by the government of Pakistan in 2009 and 2010.

According to sources, Riaz will appear before SIU which is probing corruption worth billions of rupees during Haj 2010. Hussain Asghar, the director of FIA’s Special Investigation Unit (SIU), is leading the investigations into mega Haj scam on the directions of the Supreme Court of Pakistan. The scandal has already caused arrest of former federal minister for religious affairs Hamid Saeed Kazmi and many other important officials.

Sources in SIU said Malik Riaz had allegedly sent 32 persons on a free Haj flight sponsored by the government of Pakistan in 2009. Next year, the property tycoon sent 56 more persons on a similar government funded flight causing huge loss to national exchequer.

Sources added that Riaz eventually paid back the cost of travel in the year 2012, only after the Supreme Court took suo motto notice over the Hajj scandal.Sources said Riaz’s return of money does not exonerate him as the crime was indeed committed and the amount was only returned when the scandal was exposed.

When asked why suddenly the case has been re-opened, FIA sources said the investigations were halted by some powerful circles in past but currently the situation has improved after the installation of the new government.

However, talking to The News, Riaz rubbished FIA’s claims saying he had paid for the entire flight on the request of the then Minister of Interior Rehman Malik. “They (government) asked me to donate money for the flight. These pilgrims were some poor people, some journalists and some others recommended by the Ministry of Interior,” he said adding that he paid an amount of Rs39.1 million as air-fare at once.

However, Raiz said he was later told that some amount is due against him as around 80 people did not pay dues for their accommodations in Saudi Arabia. “Then again I paid two installments of Rs6.5 million and Rs 2.8 million for the accommodation expenses,” he said.He refused to comment on the reasons for FIA summon but said he will continue to sponsor people for free Haj as this is a public service.

See: http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-2-185020-Malik-Riaz-says-he-will-answer-FIA-questions

Bahria Town Civil suit: Judge gets show cause notice for granting stay order

A judge of civil court was issued a show cause notice for seeking explanation for issuing stay order in a civil suit of Bahria Town.Following the show cause notice, the honourable judge withdrew his June 15 stay order for maintaining status quo in the case.
It should be recalled that after the order of the Supreme Court issued on June 5, the DCO Rawalpindi told newsmen that he has constituted four committees to demarcate the land of the forest department situated in Rakh Takht Pari and Rakh Lohi Bher. He had said that these committees will start marking the land from June 17.
He had further told that notices have been issued in this regard to the relevant parties, including Bahria Town.
Bahria Town filed a civil suit against this action by the forest department in the civil court in Rawalpindi on June 13. Bahria Town maintained that the DCO has taken this action through misinterpretation of the Supreme Court judgment as under the Forest Act, Punjab Local Government Ordinance a DCO has authority to issue orders to mark the farm land only and not the forest land.
The court summoned DCO and the forest department on June 15. All the parties were present in the court on 15 June 2013. After hearing the arguments and reviewing the records, the court issued status quo order and postponed the hearing till June 20.
On Thursday, while assisting the court the counsel for the Bahria Town Muhammad Ilyas Shaikh Advocate Supreme Court said that the court had issued the order of status quo on June 15 under the Order 39 Rule (b) of civil code. On this the judge smiled and remarked that he has been issued a show cause notice and an explanation has been called from him on issuing stay order in this case.
The counsel for Bahria Town said that if the matter was so, he and his other lawyer colleagues would prefer to go to the district judge, “because the independent judiciary we have been hearing about should be so.”
The honourable judge asked the Bahria Town lawyer to continue his arguments.
As the judge went to his chamber after the hearing, he was summoned by the district judge in his chamber where DCO Rawalpindi was already present. After about half an hour the judge emerged from the chamber of the district judge and came straight to the court and issued verbally the brief order of cancelling the of status quo and fixed the date for the next hearing on July 6, and went back to his chamber.

See: http://tribune.com.pk/story/566260/bahria-town-civil-suit-judge-gets-show-cause-notice-for-granting-stay-order/

09/06/2013

Accountability court acquits Malik Riaz, his son

An accountability court on Saturday acquitted real estate tycoon Malik Riaz and his son, Ali Riaz, in the 1,401 kanal land fraud case.The Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) had registered a case against Bahria Town and some officials of the Punjab Revenue Department on November 4, 2009, on the complaints of residents of some villagers near Rawat. Malik Riaz, his son and others were accused of bribing revenue officials to get 1,401 kanals of ‘shamilat’, or community land, transferred to their names on fake documents. However, in October last year, the ACE on request of NAB transferred the matter to the accountability court. The NAB prosecutor had submitted a plea under Section 31-B, stating that after examining the available record and evidence, the bureau had found that Malik Riaz and his son were not liable to be accused. Accountability court judge Chaudhry Abdul Haq reserved the judgment Saturday morning and issued it later in the day, acquitting Malik Riaz and his son, Ali Riaz, of all charges while accepting a plea bargain of Patwari Rizwan. -

See more at: http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2013/03/02/news/national/accountability-court-acquits-malik-riaz-his-son/#sthash.7SR7NtXk.dpuf

In the newspapers today:

Bahria Enclave has no NOC. Many hundreds of millions poured in.

08/06/2013:

Bahria Town allegedly harassing farmers

The villagers are not interested in selling their land and want to continue cultivation on their agricultural lands, but they are allegedly being harassed with the help of local touts and police. Various pressure tactics are allegedly being used to press and force the farmers to sell their land for the expansion of the housing society.
A poor villager told Daily Times that he was receiving threats from some influential people who first tried to convince him to sell the land, however, when he refused they resorted to threats. “My forefathers settled this land and I have special association with it, therefore we do not want to sell this land at any cost, come want may,” he remarked.
Another villager said many people have sold their land due to the pressure of influential people of the area and property dealers’ mafia. He acknowledged the fact that their lands’ prices have been increased due to Bahria Orchard scheme, however, as per market estimates the price of his land was higher that the offer being made by the Bahria officials.
“I do not want to sell my land at their price and they are pressing me one way or the other. I am tired of putting off their touts, but some of them are harassing me and my family.” On the contrary, when contacted, City Raiwind Police Station Duty Officer Ghulam Rasool denied the allegation that police was harassing the villagers. “We have nothing to do with this business.” He said if someone is found involved and police is approached we would take strict action because Bahria Town Orchard is situated near Pajian which falls in City Raiwind Police Station’s jurisdiction.
Meanwhile, Bahria Town media manager Nida Zahoor said the matter was not in her notice and she needed to confirm it from a local officer of the society. “I would be able to respond on this matter tomorrow,” she added. Experts are already criticising expansion of the city and loss of rich agricultural land to residential societies. Deforestation in the name of development is also causing serious environmental threats and imbalance of biodiversity. They have recommend vertical development of city instead of horizontal, which has caused axing of a large number of trees and loss of fertile agricultural land. They have demanded the policy makers and town planners to stop the illegal expansion on the city in the name of housing.

See: http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2013%5C06%5C08%5Cstory_8-6-2013_pg7_17

SC orders two firms to return Rs986m by 10th

ISLAMABAD - The Supreme Court on Friday ordered the two companies - Elezium Holding Pakistan and Island Private Limited - involved in sale of billions of rupees Gurdwaras land to DHA to return Rs986 million by June 10, 2013.The court also ordered the heads of the companies Shirjeel Muhammad Shah and Muhammad Hamad Arshad to submit their passport at the SC Registrar office. The court ordered FIA that in case they don't deposit money then arrest them after registration of cases.Sardar Ram Singh, ex-member District Assembly Malakand (Dargai), and others had filed an application in the Supreme Court therein argued that Chairman Auqaf Property Board is unlawfully selling Evacuee Trust Property. A three-member bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry granted one-week time to former chairman Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) Asif Hashmi to appear before the court.Hearing the case, the Chief Justice remarked that Pakistan was a civilised country, where the minorities have equal rights. He said such incidents tarnish the image of Pakistan in the world. The CJP said: "When we go abroad people talk about discriminatory attitude with the minorities, which is wrong."Hamid Khan, appearing on behalf of Asif Hashmi, informed that his client was in Saudi Arabia to perform Umrah. The learned counsel told that he had talked to the former chairman ETPB and informed him that court had summoned him. Hamid Khan prayed to the court to give one-week time.The petitioners' counsel told the bench that last night he met with one of the members of the ETPB, Azra B Shujat. He said Azra Shujat gave her written statement to him about the agreement to sell Trust's land to DHA. The lawyer read statement in the open court.According to that during the tenure of Asif Hashmi as chairman ETPB several meetings of the trust were held regarding the investment of evacuee trust properties but in none of them this issue was brought on agenda or discussed. "Later on it came to her knowledge that approval about the deal was obtained from the federal government.Azra Shujat's statement further said that the board members were unaware of the deal, as the chairman didn't inform anyone. The learned counsel informed that it also came to his knowledge that some money out of total amount was invested in the stock exchange, which was illegal as that was public money.FIA Director (Legal) Azam Khan informed the court that both the companies received Rs 986 million from the deal, which with mark up now is Rs 2.97 billion. The Chief Justice asked the CEO Elezium Muhammad Hammad Arshad that both of them have to return the money as the property belonged to Sikh. The CJP asked them, "If you would not submit the amount then FIA after registering a case would arrest both of you."Muhammad Hammad Arshad informed that he bought the company last year, while the agreement took place in 2009. "Neither I received this amount nor used it." The Chief Justice asked him that he had purchased the company with the profit and loss. "If you get the profit then you also have to bear the loss," he added.The CEO Island prayed to the court that he only owed Rs280 million but he didn't have this amount in cash therefore one month time be given to pay back that amount by selling his properties. The court, however, rejected his request and ordered him to deposit the amount by June 10 otherwise be ready for arrest.The case was adjourned till June 14.

See: http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/editors-picks/08-Jun-2013/sc-orders-two-firms-to-return-rs986m-by-10th

07/06/2013: DHA Islamabad bank accounts seized

Large Taxpayer Unit (LTU) Islamabad has seized the bank accounts of Defence Housing Authority (DHA) Islamabad for non-payment of taxes, official sources said here on Tuesday. It has been reliably learnt that the LTU Islamabad has raised tax demand of Rs 558 million against the authority. After fulfilment of all legal formalities and procedures, LTU Islamabad has seized the bank accounts of the said authority.
Sources explained that the authority fell within the jurisdiction of the LTU Islamabad. The accounts have been seized for the past one week but the authority has yet not made any payment to the LTU Islamabad. Moreover, tax authorities were unable to recover substantial amount of revenue from the banks accounts of the authority. The tax authorities are seriously considering taking further enforcement action against the authority's officials for persistent non-compliance. Some other action by the LTU Islamabad is expected in coming days in this regard, official added.

See: http://www.brecorder.com/taxation/181:pakistan/1195407:dha-islamabad-bank-accounts-seized/

05/06/2013: Bahria Town's sector D, E and F still controversial

LAHORE: The Lahore Development Authority (LDA) has said that Bahria Town’s sectors D, E and F are still controversial as these are not approved by the competent authority and the people have invested money at their own risk despite public information campaign by the authority.LDA Metropolitan Planning officers Tuesday told Daily Times that the Bahria Town administration’s representatives visited the LDA offices along with written response to the show-cause notices served on the housing society by LDA, however, the reasons given in their response were invalid and inappropriate and did not provide a justification to by-pass the rules and regulations. He said the issue of the three extended sectors in Bahria Town, owned by property tycoon Malik Riaz, on Link Canal Road near Mohlanwal, is still the same ‘unapproved’. These sectors are not under the legal cover and plots being sold there are illegal under the law. Another director of LDA said under section 18 (2) of the Private Housing Scheme and Land Subdivision Rules-2010 the sale of plots in any schemes was prohibited until final approval is taken from the competent authority. He said Lahore Metropolitan Planning was the competent authority and no approval has been taken so far from it. When asked about the people who have already purchased plots in the controversial sectors investing their hard-earned money, he said the LDA has formally informed the people through its advertisements in newspapers and display of banners at prominent places in the city. “If people are still purchasing plots, they are at their own risk we have fulfilled our responsibility. He said many schemes are deceiving and depriving innocent citizens of their hard-earned money, therefore it was the responsibility of the purchasers to get proper information from LDA offices before investing their money.”It is noteworthy that LDA took out an advertisement in newspapers in February titled “Buyers—Beware of Purchasing Plots: In Sectors D, E& Fond Phase-2 of Bahria Town Lahore” The advert read: “The public is hereby made aware of the ongoing advertising campaign by the management of Bahria Town, Lahore, for alluring the buyers for purchasing plots, carved a~: on land for which approval had not been sought from the Competent Authority. The factual position about these schemes is as under: Sectors D and E of Bahria Town, Lahore, have not been got approved by the Competent Authority. Similarly Sector F has also not been got approved by the Competent Authority where plots are being illegally marketed these days through media. “Lahore Development Authority is fully authorised to demolish such illegal development works under Clause 40 of the LDA Act. 1975. Further, the sponsors also liable to be punished for fine a imprisonment, under Clauses 33 & 38 of the LDA Act, 1975.” Bahria Town Media Manager Nida Zahoor was not available for her comments. The Bahria Town administration claims to have its sector A, B and C approved by the Allama Iqbal Town Municipal Administration. Through advertisements, it also declares its sectors D and E completely developed projects for which it claims to have submitted applications to the respective TMA (Iqbal Town). It, however, declares its sector-F project under planning process. The LDA administration also claimed that LDA advertisement campaign against it was politically motivated. However, LDA Director General Ahad Khan Cheema has already clarified that the LDA has not taken action against Bahria Town at the behest of any political party but for the public interest and to get their law implemented.

See: http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2013%5C06%5C05%5Cstory_5-6-2013_pg1_6

22/05/2013:

Big news out of Florida. Thomas Kramer, the "Miami property tycoon" that Bahria Town advertisements were hailing as a major investor in the Bahria City Karachi project has gone bankrupt. According the to the following detailed report, not only has he gone bankrupt, but he was counting on Malik Riaz to help him out:

Red-eyed with exhaustion, Thomas Kramer slumped behind his empty desk. The real estate tycoon had been up all night worrying about how to break the news to his employees. As they filed in, he reached across the desk and grabbed a bottle of pills. Behind him, green lights blinked on an oversize map, indicating the dozens of exotic locales he'd visited. But the shell-shocked look on his face made the towering, blond German look less a glamorous entrepreneur than the general of a defeated army.

It was a Thursday morning in early March, and Kramer had called an emergency staff meeting in his "war room," as he referred to the office in his opulent Star Island mansion. The seven-member team that gathered around him had known for months their boss was facing money problems. He was so short of cash, in fact, he'd borrowed money from friends and sold off his extensive watch collection to meet payroll. Until we marched into his office, though, no one knew just how dire the situation had become.

Thomas Kramer is famous for his extravagant lifestyle.

Kramer's Portofino Tower is still a high-end hot spot in South Beach.

Marc Averette

"I can no longer afford to keep you guys," Kramer said softly as he began to cry. "There are only so many watches I can sell. I feel like I have failed you all."

In the 12 months I'd worked for Kramer as his in-house writer, I'd witnessed firsthand his crippling mood swings, but I'd never seen him this depressed. "I see no other option," he sobbed.

That morning marked a new low in one of the most incredible rise-and-fall stories in Miami Beach's storied history of booms and busts. In the 1990s, Kramer was SoBe royalty, the man who'd spearheaded the South of Fifth revival and ruled from a waterfront mansion where wild shindigs sometimes turned into outright orgies. More than anyone, he symbolized an era of glamour, decadence, and carefree excess.

Now it was all over thanks to a Swiss court ruling in January that Kramer had to repay nearly $200 million to a German currency-printing dynasty. His appeals were up. Everything had to go — the house, the staff, the jewelry, the extensive cellar of vintage wine, even the taxidermied giraffe that greeted visitors in the hallway. Because of my job in Kramer's mansion, I had a unique front-row seat for his last days in Miami Beach. I saw one man's desperate efforts to salvage his name and his livelihood, afraid but hopeful that some last-minute opportunity would save him from financial ruin.

In fact, by the time he dismissed his staff, Kramer had already found the man he believed could be his long-shot savior: a scandal-tarred Pakistani plutocrat named Malik Riaz who wanted a partner to build a $20 billion island city in Karachi. Riaz, Kramer said that morning between sobs, was his last best hope.

"This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to bring Pakistan back on the map of the leading nations in the world," Kramer later said of the project.

If he succeeds in Karachi, Kramer could pull off the ultimate coup in a career full of remarkable comebacks. If he fails, though, it's anyone's guess how low he could fall.

"I don't see any possibility of the island project materializing," says Amir Mateen, a Pakistani reporter who wrote a ten-part series about Malik Riaz for the Pakistani newspaper theSpokesman. "It has all the ingredients of a scam."

Thomas Kramer was a notorious figure even as a teenager. He was born April 27, 1957, in Frankfurt, Germany, and by the age of 13 he was making waves with a rabidly right-wing student newspaper he founded called Pausenzeichen, the German word for "recess" or "break."

As student protests raged against the Vietnam War, young Thomas watched cars burning in the street and police battling protesters, he recalled in interviews for his unpublished memoirs. Even though he had yet to visit the country, Kramer loved America, or at least the idea of America. To him it represented freedom and democracy, while the student protesters represented the opposite: the tyranny of East German-style socialism.

After his home was graffitied with threats tied to his newspaper, his father, a stockbroker named Willi Kramer, and his mother, Ingeborg, shipped Thomas off to Salem Boarding School, a posh private academy housed in a castle. Suddenly surrounded by students and teachers who agreed with his right-wing views, Kramer grew bored with politics. It was a move he'd repeat throughout his life. He thrived on conflict.

Instead, the teenager turned his energies to making money in the stock market just like his father. The fact that Willi's son wasn't old enough to trade didn't stop him. Kramer often told a story about changing his age on his passport, opening an account with 500 Deutschmarks, and then trading on the school pay phone. By the end of high school, he claimed, he made his first million Deutschmarks. (Though he also admitted he just as quickly lost it on bad investments — another recurring pattern.)

By 1976, Kramer was working on Wall Street, where he spent the next decade as a commodities trader commuting between Germany and New York. He was already getting a reputation as a major-league playboy. For his 30th birthday party in 1987, he rented a German castle, invited 200 guests, and made a grand entrance dressed as a circus ringmaster riding an elephant.

Kramer attributed his early success to his dreams — literally. "I am a man of visions," he toldForbes magazine in March 1993. "One time I had a dream about a burning field. I knew I should buy wheat and corn futures. That is how it is with me." Another dream, he claimed, told him to take all of his money out of the market, which led him to predict the 1987 stock market crash. Whether it was foresight or good luck, he made a reported $30 million on that deal and became a regular on German talk shows.

He also dated a string of high-profile and beautiful women. The loveliest of all was Catherine Burda, a willowy heiress whom Kramer met in 1989 at a charity dinner.

They were both rich kids with rebellious streaks. Three days after meeting, she flew him in her private jet to Munich to meet her father, Franz Burda, who ran one of Europe's largest publishing empires. The meeting did not go well. In interviews for his memoir, Kramer recalls Franz, a giant of a man, screaming, "Are you that Thomas Kramer? If you ever touch my daughter, I'll destroy you! I'll destroy you!"

The couple defied Franz and jetted to New York a few days later to marry. It turned out Franz Burda wasn't bluffing. His newspapers began running stories about a purportedly shady real estate fund that Kramer had set up in East Germany just before reunification in 1990. The accusations were flimsy, but the bad press caused the bank to withdraw its line of credit. Kramer says his fund went bankrupt.

But if Kramer had made an enemy of one powerful German business magnate, he soon found a friend in another: Siegfried Otto, the wealthy patriarch of the clan that controlled Germany's biggest bank-note-printing company, Giesecke & Devrient. Siegfried was Catherine Burda's stepfather.

Outwardly, the elderly Otto was a respectable businessman. He'd earned his wealth by marrying Utta Devrient, the daughter of Giesecke & Devrient's owner, in 1943 while he was a major in the German army. When West Germany switched to the Deutschmark after the war, he turned Giesecke & Devrient into a global powerhouse that eventually printed currency for more than 50 countries.

In reality, though, Otto had been cheating the tax man for nearly 30 years, stashing 200 million Deutschmarks in Swiss banks. He saw a way out of his predicament in his new son-in-law.

Kramer, according to Swiss court documents, offered a simple solution: He'd take care of Siegfried's millions in Miami's real estate market. The younger German had just returned from his first trip to South Beach and was full of stories about a town slowly emerging from neglect. After a helicopter ride over Miami Beach, he was particularly bullish about the southern tip of the island, then a crime-ridden neighborhood that reminded him of Manhattan's Battery, which he saw transformed from a landfill into a luxury housing complex in the 1980s.

On May 8, 1992, the two German businessmen signed a confidential document, a gift annuity agreement that gave Kramer control over Otto's hidden funds, according to the Swiss court documents. Kramer, now 200 million Deutschmarks richer, embarked on a massive property-shopping spree, buying three lots on Star Island and 45 acres of land south of Fifth Street, often paying way over market value and usually in cash. Practically overnight, he became South Beach's biggest property owner.

"Everyone thought he was crazy," Saul Gross, then a city commissioner, told the New York Times earlier this year. "He wanted to buy whatever he could, and he was willing to pay whatever people were asking; he wasn't even negotiating."

Few have ever made a first impression quite like Thomas Kramer's grand debut in Miami Beach.

It came with the opening of his nightclub, Hell, on November 1, 1992, in the old Leonard's Hotel on Ocean Drive. "Come revel with the Devil," read the invitations. Kramer had spent $6 million to open a lavish nightclub featuring rooms dedicated to each of the seven deadly sins. However, rather than a glorious welcoming party, Kramer — who was dressed head to toe as Satan — prompted a mass walkout when journalists, many of whom were gay, overheard him telling the club's manager: "Don't let in any more faggots."

The opening of Hell, which closed two weeks later, was a PR disaster that left Kramer labeled a bigot — an image, though it was mostly untrue, that he could never shake even as he rose to new heights in South Beach. "He was seen as an arrogant man wearing a tux smoking a cigar telling us we were too ugly to get into his club," former Hell doorman Louis Canalis told New Times in a 1992 profile piece.

When not sabotaging his public image, Kramer spent the first half of the '90s cleaning up South of Fifth. His plans for the deteriorated neighborhood were as haphazard as his nightclub schemes. First he wanted to construct a replica of Portofino, the Italian fishing village. Next came plans for the world's largest gay hotel, followed by a $500 million casino backed by Donald Trump. Kramer blew millions on an initiative to bring gambling to South Florida that was defeated at the ballot box in November 1994. Finally, he settled on a less ambitious plan: a serious of high-rise luxury apartments, starting with Portofino Tower.

That project also nearly floundered. He'd made it to only the fourth floor of the planned 44-story building when he ran out of Otto's money. So in 1995, developer Jorge Pérez stepped in with financing. Kramer was a constant thorn in the developer's side, insisting at one point that the concrete balconies be replaced with glass ones, a $10 million overrun. Later, he decided the showers were all too small and ordered the architect to rip them out.

Kramer's personal life also threatened his empire. In February 1995, he was arrested in Zurich, Switzerland, after an old school friend accused him of raping his wife in the bathroom of a strip club. Kramer claimed the sex was consensual. The charges were dismissed by Swiss prosecutors because it was unclear whether the woman's injuries were inflicted by Kramer or by her angry spouse. Then, later that year, Catherine divorced him.

Amid that turmoil, Kramer's business empire reached new heights. Portofino opened in 1997 as a huge hit. The peach-and-turquoise building attracted deep-pocketed buyers from abroad who snapped up apartments for as much as $2.5 million. The same year, Kramer sold 13 acres of oceanfront land for $54 million, four times what he'd paid for it five years earlier. South Pointe was booming, and crazy Kramer wasn't looking so crazy anymore.

Soon after his divorce from Catherine, Kramer began dating Stephanie Phillips, a fashion model studying psychology at the University of Miami. Phillips wasn't a vacuous model. She was an avid outdoorswoman who enjoyed hiking in far-flung locations with Kramer.

But despite his newfound love, Kramer kept getting into trouble. In November 1997, while at dinner with Stephanie and Jorge Pérez at the South Miami restaurant Trattoria Sole, a fracas broke out. Owner Maurizio Farinelli said Kramer punched him when he told the developer to put out his cigar. A huge brawl erupted between his posse and the restaurant staff. By the time a bloodied Kramer stumbled out to be whisked away in an SUV, the restaurant had been trashed. Kramer was charged with misdemeanor assault. (He was later acquitted.)

Then, a month before the assault trial, Phillips committed suicide. She was 25. Kramer, who claimed he learned that Phillips was suffering from bipolar disorder only after she died, was inconsolable, comparing losing her to having his right arm cut off.

Her death seemed to spur Kramer to even greater heights of outrageous behavior. In April 1999, he was kicked off his own 42nd birthday cruise, a lavish affair that began in Tel Aviv. For Kramer, it ended the next day when the captain dumped him in Port Said, Egypt, after he'd started a fistfight with a waiter because the ship had run out of Opus One, a favorite California wine.

The next month, Kramer was arrested for rape again, this time by the London Metropolitan Police. One of Kramer's assistants, who was staying with him in his posh London mansion, accused him of sexually assaulting her in his bedroom. Kramer claimed it was an attempt by the secretary and her boyfriend to shake him down. The case was dismissed after his accuser withdrew the charges.

By the end of the 1990s, just as Kramer was reaching the pinnacle of his success as a real estate developer, his highly public personal life was spinning out of control.

I first met Thomas Kramer in November 2010 at Burger & Beer Joint on Bay Road and quickly realized the stories about his eccentricity weren't exaggerated. Before eating, he reached into a velvet bag and took out an elaborate collection of spices, which he carefully laid out on the table. He said he carried them everywhere he dined out.

I found Kramer charming and infuriating at once, not at all like the "Deutsche douchebag" of tabloid legend. He was a constantly moving ball of energy, like an overgrown 6-year-old with a bad case of ADD — an impression that would only strengthen over the 12 months I spent in his employ.

I'd gone to the restaurant hoping the entrepreneur could help me with a copyright lawsuit, and although he proved unhelpful, I did spend an entertaining evening slapping his hand under the table as he tried to put it up my skirt. He was fascinated to learn that I was working as a professional dominatrix. I was 19 pretending to be 21. After escaping to Miami Beach from my suburban Staten Island home in the summer of 2009, I'd found my way to a dungeon in Coral Gables. I later wrote a New Times cover story about the time I spent there and penned a regular column about BDSM, a body of work that helped me worm into Kramer's confidences. One freak bonding with another, as it were.

Before I left the burger joint, he claimed I reminded him of himself as a youngster. "If you're this crazy now, imagine what you are going to be when you are my age," he said. The dinner over, Kramer took a wad of cash from his pocket and tipped the waitress $200.

For two years afterward, we texted and kept in contact. Then, in March 2012, I saw he'd posted an ad on Facebook looking for a ghostwriter to pen his autobiography. I replied as a joke, but he instantly texted back asking me to come in for an interview. He hired me on the spot and told me to turn up for work the next day.

Like most of the other ten employees I met that first day at his waterfront mansion, I knew nothing of Kramer's money woes. Judging by the vast Mediterranean-style villa painted in Kramer's favorite color — bright red — he was every inch the outrageously wealthy entrepreneur he presented himself as on The Real Housewives of Miami.

My first task as his autobiographer was piecing together what he had been up to in the new millennium. "A ten-year downward spiral" is how Kramer described the period in his official biography on his website. Planned projects, such as SoBe Towers in Rio de Janeiro and a mega-development in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, never made it further than the drawing board. Vast sums were funding his extravagant lifestyle, but almost nothing was coming in.

By 2010, Kramer had grown tired of all the partying and jetted to Mexico to undergo ibogaine treatment — a controversial procedure in which doctors spent two weeks pumping him full of hallucinogenic drugs. He said it had worked: He stopped drinking, claiming that even the slightest smell of alcohol made him ill. Now clean and sober, he wanted to get back into the real estate development business, but no one wanted to work with him because of his scandal-scarred reputation.

So he'd been trying to market his "brand" instead. First came TK Fashion, a line of casual wear that sold very few items. A planned cable cooking show called Totally Kooked, in which Kramer would make dinner for ten celebrity guests, also fizzled. In 2011, he set up TK Global Realty, which was in business for about a month before the realtors quit in a dispute over commissions.

Plowing through a pile of manuscripts — the efforts of the dozen or so previous writers who'd quickly been fired — I soon discovered that Kramer, who referred to himself as a "visionary developer," was prone to exaggerating and taking credit for practically every luxury high-rise apartment building in South of Fifth. In truth, he had little to do with any work other than Portofino Tower and the Yacht Club at Portofino, a 33-story building he opened two years later.

"Thomas was not really a developer. He was a trader, and so he partnered with or sold to developers who executed the projects," Neisen Kasdin, who was Miami Beach's mayor from 1997 to 2001, recently told New Times.

Kramer hadn't developed anything in Miami Beach on the scale of Portofino since it opened in 1997. The more I researched, the more I thought of Kramer as a male version of Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard: a onetime big shot whose glory days were over. I began to see myself, meanwhile, as William Holden's character, Joe Gillis, a hack inexorably drawn into Kramer's glamorous fantasy world, where he was convinced his big comeback was right around the corner.

First, however, Kramer needed a face-lift. In May 2012, he scheduled an appointment with his friend, plastic surgeon Lenny Hochstein, Miami's self-styled "Boob God." Kramer wanted someone to videotape the procedure, and because I was the least squeamish person in the office, he nominated me. I held Kramer's hand as he went under the anesthesia and filmed in rapt horror for six hours as Hochstein separated the skin from Kramer's face. The smell of burning flesh turned my stomach. When Kramer woke, the first thing he asked me was how the video turned out.

As he recuperated, the impulsive businessman decided it was a brilliant idea to upload the video to YouTube, claiming it would somehow enhance his brand. The whole office protested, but he disregarded our advice. (Fortunately, the video was removed a couple of days later.)

Surreal incidents such as that one made me feel like I was working for a different company every few weeks. One month, I worked for a firm selling "not just real estate, but lifestyle." The next, bored with luxury sales, the boss decided to get into app development. "The future is online!" he would bark enthusiastically. Never mind that he had trouble operating his iPhone.

Kramer was also obsessed with starting a reality TV show. His guest appearances on The Real Housewives of Miami — where last season he kicked out two of the show's cast members for bickering at his dinner table — had whetted his appetite, but he wasn't having much luck drumming up interest. "You don't make me any money — at least get me a fucking show!" he would yell at his staff.

A friend of mine knew people at NBC, so she set up a meeting at Kramer's mansion with a high-ranking executive producer. But in the middle of the meeting, Kramer began weeping while explaining why he was "misunderstood." I never heard from the network again. Apparently, he was too unhinged even for reality TV.

Kramer's red-faced rages, meanwhile, were frightening. The most insignificant detail would set him off: from an email that wasn't typed in his favorite font (Helvetica) to a wrong-colored marker on the office whiteboards. During these episodes, it was as if he would enter into an altered state. Afterward, he would forget what he had just said and seemed genuinely surprised that his staff was upset.

Not unexpectedly, employee turnover was high. During the year I worked on Star Island, I saw more than 30 people come and go. Nevertheless, if you could look past the outbursts, Kramer could be a cool boss. "My house is your house," he often said, when he wasn't calling us all "baby lions," his affectionate term. Any employees who needed a place to live were welcome to stay rent-free in one of the guest houses, and Kramer encouraged his staff to grab a bottle of wine from his fridge and chill by his pool. We would roll our eyes and call him our "wacky German mother" when he cavorted around the kitchen making us lunch while wearing an apron with a huge black dildo embroidered on it.

What we didn't know, though, was that behind the scenes, Kramer's financial house of cards was close to tumbling down.

The judgment came January 13, nearly 21 years after Siegfried Otto had entrusted Kramer with 200 million Deutschmarks. The Swiss Federal Tribunal, the nation's highest court, was unequivocal: Kramer must now pay Otto's descendants the equivalent of $187 million.

It was Kramer's entire fortune and more — a stunning result that came from nearly two decades of legal fighting in Europe that Kramer, amazingly, had somehow kept secret from nearly everyone who knew him in Miami.

Kramer's troubles, it turned out, began back in 1993, only a year after Otto had entrusted him with his money. That's when Otto got cold feet, confessed to German authorities that he'd hidden his untaxed fortune with Kramer, and then struck a confidential deal to avoid jail time by repaying 100 million Deutschmarks (about $71.4 million). That agreement was leaked to the German press two years later, forcing Otto to resign from day-to-day operations at Giesecke & Devrient.

What was less public was Otto's legal action after settling that massive tax bill: He asked Kramer to pay back the money. Problem was, Kramer had already spent about $100 million on land in Miami Beach. So, according to Swiss court filings, Kramer returned just $20 million and refused to refund the rest. After negotiations between their lawyers failed, Kramer filed a preemptive lawsuit in July 1996 with the circuit court of Zurich claiming he was "maliciously misled during contract negotiations" with Otto in 1992 and didn't owe him anything.

Otto countersued the same year, demanding the return of all his funds plus interest and an accounting of how Kramer had spent the millions. The next year, the Swiss courts dismissed Kramer's lawsuit and sided with Otto. Whether the money that Otto gave to Kramer constituted a loan, as Otto maintained, or a gift, as Kramer claims to this day, became the basis of a string of unsuccessful appeals that would consume Kramer behind the scenes for the next 15 years.

When the 82-year-old Otto died after a series of strokes in 1997, his surviving daughters inherited their father's business and continued his lawsuit. Verena von Mitschke-Collande, the current owner of Giesecke & Devrient, and Claudia Miller-Otto, a philanthropist and abstract painter who lives in Key West, weren't willing to forgive such a colossal debt. (Both sisters declined to be interviewed for this story.)

On January 9, 2003, the Zurich High Court dismissed Kramer's appeal. To ensure that the Swiss judgment stuck, the heirs took their case to Miami. On April 13, 2007, Miami-Dade County Circuit Court decided the ruling was "an enforceable judgment of this State of Florida." The Otto sisters also targeted Kramer's London assets. A British judge froze $10 million of Kramer's property in 2007.

Despite losses on two continents, Kramer refused to give up. Within months of the Florida verdict, Kramer's lawyers petitioned the Florida Supreme Court to strike it down. In August 2009, the court denied Kramer's petition for review.

Finally, this past January, the legal drama reached its long-delayed climax when the Swiss Federal Tribunal ruled Kramer's final appeal was "without merit" and told him it was time to pay up. The Otto clan had at last prevailed against the man who'd taken their millions to Miami.

"It wasn't a matter of principle," said a source connected to the lawsuit, who requested anonymity because of ties to the Otto family. "It was definitely over the money. Two hundred million dollars isn't loose pocket change."

In the weeks after the news, Kramer's two decades of dizzying excess quickly evaporated as he scrambled to meet the Swiss judgment.

I spent February, the month before the teary meeting with his staff, covered in paper dust in a small side room with two shredders while helping Kramer eradicate 20 years of his life. Boxes of documents — party invitations from the 1990s, receipts for dinners from fancy restaurants, photographs of Portofino Tower — reached almost to the ceiling. I shredded so much that sanitation workers complained about having to haul it all away. Kramer would occasionally pop in. Humiliation welled up in his eyes as he watched his empire being slowly dismantled.

As the day of his departure to Pakistan drew closer, he became more depressed. The usual stream of gold diggers that flowed into the mansion now slowed to a trickle, though the occasional bimbo sheepishly clad in Kramer's custom-made shirts reading "Good Girls Go to Heaven, Bad Girls Go to 5 Star Island" would wander around the grounds. I genuinely feared that Kramer might harm himself. The death of his beloved father, Willi, in 2012 had forced him to confront his own mortality, and in the wake of the Swiss decision, he began to talk openly about taking his own life. I worried that one morning I might hear a shot coming from the walk-in safe upstairs where he stored his guns.

But Kramer soon announced he'd found one last chance to salvage his career: He was pinning all his hopes on Malik Riaz. The night before he left for Karachi, Pakistan, 200 friends gathered at his mansion to drink champagne and wish him bon voyage. "It's like being present at my own funeral," he told me.

The down-on-his-luck businessman had reason to be apprehensive. His plan reeked of desperation: Riaz, a notorious property tycoon, wanted to partner with him to build Safe Island City, which will supposedly boast the world's tallest building and the world's largest shopping center — all on the outskirts of Karachi, one of the world's most dangerous cities.

Kramer had met Riaz in Pakistan in 2010 through a mutual friend in Islamabad. The two struck up a relationship, and after a real estate company owned by the Abu Dhabi royal family backed out of a deal to finance Safe Island City in February, Riaz asked Kramer to come aboard. (Riaz didn't respond to requests from New Times through an intermediary for an interview.)

Riaz, who likes to portray himself as Sultana Daku — a Pakistani version of Robin Hood — has been publicly accused (though never convicted) of crimes ranging from forgery and extortion to kidnapping and murder. Last May, a fellow land developer named Dr. Shafiqur Rehman filed a petition with the Supreme Court of Pakistan charging that Riaz, with help from the police, had tried to frame him for the killing of one of Riaz's bodyguards in August 2008. He also claimed Riaz was responsible for the deaths of Lt. Gen. Imtiaz Hussain and Dr. Mansoor Janjua in a dispute over a land deal in Lahore. (Those claims, which Riaz has denied, are pending in court.)

Critics, though, say Riaz has skirted convictions only because he's too powerful. In June 2012, for instance, investigators tried to arrest Riaz in Islamabad on the orders of a special anti-corruption court, but the local cops prevented the tycoon from being taken into custody.

According to Amir Mateen, the reporter for the Spokesman, the Supreme Court of Pakistan has heard hundreds of cases alleging criminal misconduct by Riaz's company Bahria Township, "mostly involving land-grabbing where [Riaz's] goons forcibly took away land from poor people to build houses, some of which cost as high as 220 million rupees — the Sultana Daku in reverse."

Kramer was willing to ignore those dangers. He had no stable income. The businesses he ran didn't bring in much money, and his Star Island mansion was on the market for $55 million, but without any serious offers in sight. The Pakistani project could either be a glorious final coup for the investor or serious trouble.

"The deal better go through," Kramer told me in the kitchen during his going-away gala. "It's either that or a bullet to the head."

Just two days after leaving Miami on March 12, Kramer signed a memorandum of understanding with Riaz while surrounded by flashing cameras in Karachi. Kramer told a roomful of journalists that he "is spearheading a syndicate that is planning on investing $20 billion over the next five to ten years."

Where would Kramer get $20 billion for such a risky project? Already, Pakistani regulatory authorities have fined Riaz's company for fraudulent advertising and for illegally receiving public money in advance for a project that is still a long way from breaking ground.

Still, in a way, the partnership makes sense, because Riaz wants a sheen of Western backing and Kramer needs his name on a real project. "I think the deal is mutually beneficial," Mateen says. "Malik Riaz wants to use the name of an investor who turned around part of Miami, and Kramer will either make money if the project goes well without spending much or still gets compensated in some ways."

Kramer briefly flew back to Miami Beach in early May to oversee the auction of his mansion's contents. Buyers could bid on everything: his taxidermied German shepherd, a portrait of Joseph Stalin that once hung in the cigar room, a statue of Ben Franklin that used to sit in the courtyard. How much did he make? Kramer won't say.

Indeed, he refused to comment for this story when reached by Skype from the Cannes Film Festival last week.

"I don't want to talk about my past. You fucking worked for me for a year — you should know all this!" he yelled. Then he softened his tone. "Bye, love you. We'll talk when the article comes out."

The mansion, home to two decades of bacchanals, now sits empty awaiting a buyer. Meanwhile, Kramer's legacy — the luxury real estate market he helped pioneer in South Beach — is again surging with buyers from Russia and Brazil snapping up apartments. The price of land in SoFi has increased tenfold since Kramer began buying properties in the neighborhood.

Anyone in danger of forgetting who he was and what he meant to South Beach in its '90s heyday has only to look at the skyline of contemporary Miami Beach, where Portofino still looms as the tallest building in South Beach, a monument to one man's arrogance and perseverance.

As party promoter turned property developer Michael Capponi says: "His initial vision of South of Fifth Street helped reshape South Beach into what it is today."

See: http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2013-05-23/news/thomas-kramer-south-beach-portofino/full/

14/05/2013:

Bahria Town, DHA issued notice in land grabbing case

By Hasnaat Malik ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court has issued a notice to Bahria Town Chief Executive Officer Ali Riaz Malik and the Defence Housing Authority (DHA) Rawalpindi secretary asking for their response about allegations that around 1,416 acres of lands had been encroached by both the housing schemes, owned by the Forest Department, and thus causing a loss of billions to the Punjab government.
A three-member bench of the apex court, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, has also directed Rawalpindi District Coordination Officer Rashid Mehmood to point out the names of the officers of the Islamabad administration and the Rangers who had intercepted an attempt by the Forest Department to demarcate the lands in June 2011.
The court is hearing a suo motu case on an application by Malik Muhammad Shafi, highlighting destruction of forests and illegal acquisition of land by the Bahria Town and the DHA administrations.
The dispute at hand was the illegal occupation of 684 acres in Rakh Takht Pari and 732.5 acres in Lohi Bheer forests by Bahria Town.
Takhat Pari is located six kilometres off Rawalpindi near GT Road with a total area of 2,210 acres. The land was originally transferred to the Forest Department.
Almost the entire area of Rakh Takht Pari consists of natural shrub forest, mainly dominated by Phulai and Sanatha bushes, according to a report submitted by the Punjab government.
Even the adjoining areas have wild growth of bushes. Neither Takht Pari forest nor private holdings (mostly shamlat) were previously identified or earmarked.
During the hearing, DCO Rashid Mehmood and Divisional Forest Officer (South) Ijaz Ahmed told the court that on the behest of Bahria Town, the police force from the Islamabad Capital Territory as well as the Rangers had thwarted an attempt by the Forest Department to demarcate the land in the Takht Pari on September 7, 2011, by imposing Section 145 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), which restricts unlawful assembly.
The Bahria Town management also kept hostage the team members of the Forest Department for a couple of hours, they said.
Additional Advocate General Jawad Hassan, however, told the court that the forest officers who were also members of the demarcation committee constituted by the Rawalpindi commissioner concluded the demarcation by employing GPS technology and the old maps of the Survey of Pakistan.
The Bahria Town management raised construction on the encroached lands by developing roads and residential areas in the Takht Pari area knowing well that the land belongs to the Forest Department, DFO Ijaz Ahmed said.
The DCO recalled that the Rawalpindi Board of Revenue had already cancelled mutation entries of these lands in favour of Bahria Town on September 10, 2012.
He also informed the court that Tehsildar (collector) Noor Zaman had led a team to demarcate the forest lands, but was intercepted by the police and the Rangers, and was fully aware of the identity of the responsible officers of the law enforcement agencies.
The court asked the DCO to get the names of the officers from the tehsildar and submit it to the registrar of the Supreme Court. The registrar will then issue notices to all the officers for their appearance before the court on May 20.
See: http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2013%5C05%5C14%5Cstory_14-5-2013_pg7_7

Forest land occupation: Bahria Town chief asked to clarify allegations

ISLAMABAD, May 13: Bahria Town chief executive officer Ali Riaz Malik will have to appear before the Supreme Court on May 20 to deny or accept the charges of encroaching around 1,416 acres in 2005 owned by the forest department Rawalpindi, causing a loss of billions of rupees to the Punjab government.
At the same time, a three-judge Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry has asked the secretary of the Defence Housing Authority (DHA) to clarify the allegations that the authority had forcibly acquired privately-owned land in Rawalpindi in collusion with the revenue officials for the development of the housing authority.
The Supreme Court directed District Coordinator Officer Rawalpindi Rashid Mehmood to point out the names of the officers of the Islamabad administration and the Rangers who had foiled an attempt by the forest department to demarcate the land in June 2011.
On a suo motu, the apex court initiated hearing of an application by Malik Mohammad Shafi, highlighting the destruction of the forest and illegal acquisition of the land by the Bahria Town and the DHA.
The dispute related to the alleged occupation of 684 acres in Rakh Takht Pari and 732.5 acres in Loi Bher forests by the Bahria Town.
Takhat Pari is six kilometres away from the Rawalpindi city near G. T. Road and spreads over 2,210 acres. The land was originally transferred to the forest department on August 4, 1856.
Almost the entire area of Rakh Takht Pari comprises natural shrub forest mainly dominated by Phulai and Sanatha bushes, said a report submitted by the Punjab government to the court.
Even the adjoining areas have wild growth of bushes. Neither Takht Pari forests nor private holdings (mostly shamlat) previously were identified or earmarked.
The newly-appointed DCO, Rashid Mehmood, and Divisional Forest Officer (south) Ijaz Ahmed informed the Supreme Court that at the behest of the Bahria Town, police from the Islamabad and Rangers had thwarted an attempt by the forest department to demarcate the land in the Takht Pari on September 7, 2011, by imposing Section 145 of the PPC, which restricts unlawful assembly. The Bahria Town management also kept hostage the team members of the forest department for a couple of hours.
Additional Advocate General Jawad Hassan, however, told the court that the forest officers, who were also members of the demarcation committee constituted by the commissioner Rawalpindi, had concluded the demarcation by employing GPS technology and the old maps of the Survey of Pakistan.
The Bahria Town management raised constructions on the encroached land by developing roads and residential areas in the Takht Pari area knowing well that the land belonged to the forest department, he added.
The DCO recalled that the Board of Revenue Rawalpindi had already cancelled mutation entries of these lands in favour of the Bahria Town on September 10, 2012.
He informed the court that tehsildar (collector) Noor Zaman, who had led the team to demarcate the forest land, was intercepted by the police and the Rangers. He said the tehsildar knew the identity of the responsible officials of the law enforcing agencies.
The bench directed the DCO to get the names of the officers of the law enforcing agencies from the tehsildar and submit it to the registrar of the apex court.
The registrar will then issue notices to all the officers for appearance before the court on May 20.

See: http://dawn.com/2013/05/14/forest-land-occupation-bahria-town-chief-asked-to-clarify-allegations/

11/05/2013: On election day this gem appeared in the papers:

Bahria Town Overseas Pakistanis US dollars

08/05/2013

Civic agency fails to reclaim prime land lost to DHA

ISLAMABAD, May 7: For the last six years the civic agency of Islamabad has failed to reclaim the prime land along Islamabad Expressway that was gradually taken over by the Defence Housing Authority (DHA) and sold out.
According to senior officials in the Capital Development Authority (CDA), in 2005 the DHA started taking over the prime land in Humak, Sihala and Rawat, which was acquired by the civic agency back in 1963-65 to develop the Islamabad Expressway and an industrial area.
The land was then sold to Bahria Town. It was not until sometimes later in 2006-07 when villagers of these localities registered complaints with the CDA against the occupation.
However, it was too late by the time the CDA started pursuing the matter. Documents available with Dawn show how the DHA then committed to the civic agency in 2006-07 that it would compensate it by allotting about 700 kanals of developed 500 square-yard plots each against nearly 2,500 kanals of undeveloped land it had taken over.
But how the land exchange deal between the two authorities was reached in 2006-07 was unclear because there was no provision in the
CDA by-laws to share land.
This was why senior officials in the civic agency saw a flaw right there. “That was their trick. This is millions of rupees worth prime property along the highway. Instead of buying the land, they gave us land in exchange,” said a senior official in the CDA directorate of land.
The reason officials found the deal dodgy was the fact that the 500 square-yard plots that the DHA had offered in exchange at its Phase II Extension project only existed on papers.
“The Phase II extension project of DHA has been shelved. The files are worthless because the property is as undeveloped today as it was six or seven years back,” a source said, explaining how the land acquired by the CDA was worth lots more than the value of the 700-plus kanals offered by the DHA in exchange.
The documents also showed how the authoritative DHA wanted to compensate the Capital Development Authority at the same rate the lands were acquired back in 1963 and 1965 instead of the current market rate.
Under directions from the chief justice of Pakistan, who had taken notice of the case, a sessions judge conducted an inquiry into the matter in January, 2010.
The inquiry officer raised objections to the values of properties being exchanged and the fact that the DHA had decided to transfer less plots to the CDA than what had actually being agreed upon.
Worst still, the CDA failed to follow up on the offer given by the DHA. “We lost key properties in 2006-07. And there has been no correspondence since then by CDA with DHA. The Capital Development Authority had decided that the 700 plus kanals offered by the DHA could be auctioned to generate revenues,” explained an official in the CDA planning wing.
The Cabinet Division, which overlooks and supervises operations of the CDA, described the delay in pursuing the case with Defence Housing Authority since last six years as, ‘Glaring act of fraud, mischief, daytime robbery at CDA, causing severe loss to the national exchequer’.
In a recent Board meeting, the CDA chairman directed the member estate and member planning, director estate management and the directorate land to confirm the status and location of the plots allocated by the Defence Housing Authority.
“We are trying to ascertain the status of the case,” said Tahir Shahbaz, the CDA chairman.
Elaborating on why the CDA was revisiting the case, he said: “It was a fraudulent deal from the start. They took prime property from the CDA and gave us land that will probably fetch the authority peanuts.”
The case had been referred to the planning wing to contact the DHA through the director land survey for verification of the site and status of the plots to prepare a comprehensive report.
The documents show how in Sihala the CDA had acquired more than 530 acres in 1963 and 1965.
In Rawat, the total land measuring more than 135 acres was acquired for Islamabad Highway in 1963. And in Humak, 768 acres was acquired to establish an industrial area.
When contacted, the public relations section of the DHA declined to comment.

See: http://dawn.com/2013/05/08/civic-agency-fails-to-reclaim-prime-land-lost-to-dha/

06/05/2013

SC resumes hearing in Bahria Town CNIC scandal today

ISLAMABAD - The Supreme Court will today (Thursday) resume the hearing into a suo motu action taken against issuance of computerised national identity cards (CNICs) at the instance of Bahria Town Chief Executive Malik Riaz to 20,000 employees of Bahria Town by changing their temporary addresses to influence the election process in Rawalpindi’s NA-52constituency.

The National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) chairman would appear on notice. On August 19, the court had directed NADRA to close its office located in or around the Bahria Town. The court will examine the reply by NADRA’s counsel, Raza Kazim. At the last hearing, Kazim had stated that NADRA was an institution and was not concerned with any influential personality, whether he was the Bahria Town chief executive or Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Nisar Ali Khan. The applicant, Muhammad Hashmi, had told the court that 4,100 CNICs had so far been issued.The court was informed that the temporary addresses of these cards were being replaced with the addresses falling in NA-52 constituency to make the holders voters of the constituency. It was told that the government had set up a NADRA office in the courtyard of Bahria Town, so that the Bahria Town employees could get their cards easily and influence the elections of NA-52. However, now the NADRA office was shifted outside the Bahria Town office, which was called Swan Town.NADRA Chief Administrator Tahir Akram had denied the allegation.Nisar had also expressed concerns over the issue and said it was part of a scheme to defeat him in the next general elections.

See: http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2011/09/15/news/national/sc-resumes-hearing-in-bahria-town-cnic-scandal-today/

02/05/2013

Bahria administration facing double trouble

ISLAMABAD:It seems that steps taken by the administration of Bahria Enclave for making their society a successful venture may come under tough scrutiny in the coming days as they are facing two separate probes regarding the project.First the judicial commission formed by the Islamabad High Court (IHC) to probe CDA irregularities investigated the issue related to construction of double road leading towards Bahria Enclave and made some recommendations in this regard which will be taken up by the court on May 3^rd. Secondly the Senate Standing Committee on Cabinet Division also took notice of the considerable increase in the rates of plots in Bahria Enclave during a short span of time and sought a reply from the Bahria management in this regard.
It shows the confidence of Bahria Town administration about changing their illegal moves into legal acts without too much fuss was that the administration constructed a double road to ensure easy access to Bahria Enclave without the approval of CDA and allegedly by encroaching upon the CDA land. Interestingly, after the lapse of several of months they easily succeeded in getting the approval for the said road
This also showed the negligence of CDA officials who remained silent over the construction of road for a period of one year.
The report said that Bahria Town constructed a double road on CDA land without obtaining permission of the civic body in 2011. The authority accorded approval later in 2012.
CDA Deputy Director Enforcement Shafi Muhammad Marwat had submitted before the commission that the management of Bahria Enclave had taken 300 Kanals of CDA land for the construction of a road and 900 Kanals for construction of their offices. He said that, with regards to the problem of double road leading towards Bahria Enclave, different wings of CDA have been corresponding with each other and have been shifting the burden on to each other. He said that no one could dare to direct the enforcement wing to take over possession of the encroached area.
The commission, in its report, recommended that joint demarcation should be carried out of the place in presence of Bahria Town, ICT administration and CDA.
Sources in the CDA told The Spokesman that the demarcation may not go in favor of Bahria Town and if it comes true, they will have to face a major blow in the form of leaving the land or paying high compensation to the affectees. They said that the demarcation of the land could not be carried out earlier as an individual of Kurri village filed a civil suit against the CDA after which the court ordered to maintain status quo of the land. It is believed that the Bahria administration has asked someone to file the case as the petitioner has not cited Bahria Town as a respondent in the case. The commission found that “from the oral and documentary evidence so far collected, it is apparent on the face of it that access to Bahria Enclave was intervened by Kuri Village, a property belonging to the CDA.”
The commission recommended disciplinary action against the officials of CDA who remained inactive during construction of the road up till the time it was accorded approval. On the other hand, in its last meeting, the Senate standing committee sought a reply from the Bahria Enclave administration as to why they made a considerable increase in the prices of plots. At the time of its launch, Bahria Enclave offered a plot of one Kanal for Rs6 million whereas the rate has now been increased to 8.5 million which compelled the committee to take notice of the situation. The committee will also take up the matter in its next meeting.

See: http://thespokesman.pk/index.php/history/item/4536-bahria-administration-facing-double-trouble

30/04/2013

DHA defending scammers?

The Defence Housing Authority (DHA) is reluctant to provide land record of Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) to FIA, which is investigating a staggering land scam told sources in the ETPB.According to sources, investigators have issued notices to the DHA management to provide record but no avail. The record collected from the ETPB revealed that there was 4,259-Kanals and 11-marlas land at Village Dera Chahal, Motasinghwala and Lider, Tehsil Lahore Cantt and owned by ETPB. Village-wise land detail is as follows: Dera Chahal 244-K & 15-M, Motasinghwala 862-K & 1-M and Lidher1152-K & 15-M.During initial probe of FIA, investigators claimed that due to the absence of complete record of DHA, it was not possible to give conclusive recommendations.However, as per available record from ETPB, approval granted by the Board for the exchange of land without considering terms and conditions etc. opens scope and authority for the Chairman ETPB to be probed further. The plea of members of the board is yet to be recorded for which formal notices have been issued to them.The Probe report says that the Federal Government also granted approval without determining terms and conditions i.e total land, location, survey/price report etc. which also needs thorough probe as the plea of the concerned officers/official of Ministry of Minorities (now defunct) is yet to be recorded.Apparently, it seems that the Draft Agreement should have been forwarded to the Controlling Ministry/Ministry of Law & Justice Division for vetting (DHA’s version of the concerned Ministry is yet to be recorded).ET Land situated at Dera Chahal, Motasinghwala and Mauza Lidher has agricultural status in books but due to tremendous increase in population and development by DHA Lahore, the status of the said land has become urban property due to the fact that it is surrounded by developed scheme of DHA, Lahore and others. This matter is also required to be probed whether any commission/kick backs /personal gains have been obtained or not.FIA probe report revealed that registry expenses amounting to Rs39,189,600 initially borne by the ETPB instead of DHA and subsequently reimbursed to ETPB by DHA after period of one and half month needs to be probed. Similarly expenditures incurred by DHA Lahore as per their claim for vacation of land from the land grabbers/occupants also needs thorough probe.Record pertaining to the allegations of illegal allotments of plot to officers/officials of Ministry of Minorities has been obtained which is under scrutiny, report further maintained. As per record regarding illegal leasing of Gurdwara Land situated at Ghas Mandi, Sahiwal was obtained. Scrutiny of the same revealed that Property No.518-519/B-IV measuring to 1-K & 13-M belongs to Hindu Mat Singh Saba Mandir. The inquiry is under probe. FIA intends to get the said land evaluated through a reliable, credible and reputable Evaluator i.e NFSPAK etc. in order to determine the actual price of the said land at the relevant time. Letters/Notices have been issued to Defence Housing Authority Lahore for provision of the requisite record which is still awaited despite issuance of reminders. The remaining large amount of record is yet to be collected from DHA, FTPB and Revenue Office of concerned circles to reach at a just conclusion, said an investigator seeking anonymity.

See: http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/lahore/29-Apr-2013/dha-defending-scammers

29/04/2013: Some news from Karachi

KPT, PQA sold land worth Rs88 bn to DHA for only Rs15m

KARACHI: The Supreme Court (SC) during the hearing of the suo moto notice on the Karachi law and order case, came across the biggest land scam in the history of Pakistan.

It was discovered that the Karachi Port Trust (KPT) and Port Qasim Authority (PQA) sold 1,600 acres of precious land on the Karachi coast to the Defence Housing Authority (DHA) at the rate of Rs2 and Rs2.5 per square metre.

The Sindh government claimed ownership of the land and said that both the federal institutions had no right to dispose of the land. The Sindh government, which did not receive a single penny in the bargain, came to realise this scam when the SC asked questions about the land and sought explanation as to why the KPT and PQA disposed of the said land. This helped many Sindh government departments, particularly the custodian of state lands, i.e. the Board of Revenue, to set a historic and ignoble record of incompetence. The land is worth not billions but trillions of rupees. Both the federal institutions received a sum of a mere Rs15 million as the price of the 1,600 acres of land. With this paltry amount, it is difficult to purchase even a 500 square yards plot in DHA.

The land was disposed of in 2003 and 2005. If calculated at the rate of Rs10,000 per sq yard the minimum price prevalent at that time, 8,826,280 square yards (1,600 acres) of land could fetch more than Rs88 billion. Now this land is worth trillions of rupees. It may be kept in view that the SC, while hearing the suo moto case No 2011/16, especially concentrated on the issue of the occupation of the land of the Sindh government and occasionally asked the Sindh government to furnish details of the land which had been allotted in ten years, or which had been grabbed by different institutions, persons, groups unlawfully. In this respect, the SC issued a number of orders too.

On April 14, 2013 the SC passed an order that it should be explained under what law the KPT and PQA disposed of this land. This scandal had sprung up after the SC order.

The case has been fixed for the next hearing on May 5, 2013 when the Sindh government, KPT and PQA will submit their explanations. It is expected that many eye-opening secrets will be unravelled during this hearing.

To take stock of the situation after the SC orders, a meeting was held in the office of Deputy Commissioner (South). The representatives of KPT and PQA did not bother to attend the meeting although they were invited. Director Military Land, Defence Housing Authority, told the meeting that DHA purchased 881 acres of land from KPT. On this land, Phase 8, Phase 7 (Extension), and Phase 6 of DHA have been developed.

It was further revealed that DHA purchased 736 acres from the PQA on which part of Phase 8 and Phase 8-E has been established. Some land has been reserved for waterfront development, whereas 282 acres of land was purchased from the Sindh government. It was decided in the meeting that the KPT and PQA would be asked under which law they leased out this land for 99 years.

The documents presented in the meeting have captured the imagination of legal and constitutional experts. The land given to DHA has neither been classified, nor is there any mention of it in the Sindh land record for the reason that this land has been reclaimed from the sea. The surprising thing is that the registry of both the lease-deed documents was done by the concerned sub-registrar, whereas the sub-registrars are employees of the revenue department. For the transfer of this land, they did not bother to check that there is no NoC from any office of the Board of Revenue nor is there any record of these pieces of land in the Board of Revenue. The registry of one deed is passed by the sub-registrar Kemari Town, while the other deed is signed by the sub-registrar, sub-division of T Division.

The SC has sought explanations from both the federal institutions under what law they sold the land. In the lease deed, the PQA has referred to the gazette notification No PD: 1973/2/1, dated 31 May 1974 (issued on June 21 1974). According to this notification, the federal Ministry of Ports and Shipping transferred the land within 50 yards of the high water so that it could manage the affairs of the port in a better manner. Nowhere in this notification was it written that the PQA could sell this land for commercial purposes.

How can the affairs of the port the managed properly after selling the land to DHA is a big question. How can the KPT organise its affairs in a better way by selling its land to the DHA?

The KPT has nowhere mentioned under which law it claims to be the owner of the land. In the lease deed, a clause has been added that 3 percent of the 881 acres of KPT land (i.e. 127,900 square yards) will be given to DHA and 324 plots of around 400 sq yards each will be allotted to KPT officers and the names of the officers were to be given by the KPT administration. As per the lease deed these plots have been handed over to KPT officers. What have government earned out of this deal? How far have the affairs of KPT improved through this sale? It is believed that people in PQA too have taken the plots.

How much more would the bigwigs of KPT and PQA have earned selling the land at throwaway prices? The SC can order an investigation into this aspect too.

It should be kept in mind that the KPT sold the land to DHA at the rate of Rs2.50 per square yard and received only a paltry amount of Rs8.9 million. This lease was registered on August 2 2003. In other words, 356,606 square yards of land was sold for Rs8.913 million. At that time, if the land had been sold at Rs10,000 per square yard, it would have fetched Rs42.46 billion. Similarly, PQA sold to DHA 736 acres of land at the rate of Rs2 per square yard and received Rs7 million. This lease was completed on August 21 2003. This land if calculated at the rate of Rs10,000 per square yard, would have fetched Rs35.62 billion. In these areas, some plots are fetching a price of Rs1 million per square yard while in fact they were all sold for Rs15 million. Thus land worth trillions was sold for a song.

On the other hand, the Sindh government will file a petition in the SC that the KPT and PQA sold the land unlawfully, as the land the sea leaves behind is the property of the Sindh government in accordance with the provisions of Article 172 of the Constitution and Article 50 of the Sindh Land Revenue Act.

Sources in the Sindh government have confided to this correspondent that they would pray to the Supreme Court to order legal proceedings against the administration of the KPT and PQA and the officers of the Revenue Department, Sindh who were responsible, so that those who have pocketed billions through shady means could be brought to book.

See: http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-13-22528-KPT-PQA-sold-land-worth-Rs88-bn-to-DHA-for-only-Rs15m

25/04/2013:

Malik Riaz gets another bureaucratic blow

ISLAMABAD: One of the top bureaucratic emissaries of property tycoon Malik Riaz has ﬁnally been asked to leave Commissioner Islamabad’s charge and report to the ﬁnance ministry. One of Malik’s second lieutenants, IG Islamabad Bani Amin has so far been clinging on to his job despite orders of PM House and the rage of the Islamabad High Court. Commissioner Islamabad Tariq Peerzada, who almost celebrated his coveted posting as chairman CDA in last week of March, was sent packing by the courts. Due to his connections with the property tycoon, Peerzada was given a surprise by the caretaker PM as he was informed only after issuing the transfer notiﬁcation. Mir Hazar Khan Khoso had to cut a sorry ﬁgure when he failed to transfer IG Islamabad a few weeks back even after issuing orders and appointing another officer in his place. Therefore, Peerzada was not given any chance to maneuver this time, informed sources. Malik Riaz had to digest the transfer of all his major SHOs from Islamabad’s urban and rural areas’ police stations in the last week. Sources believe that with the transfer of Peerzada from the office of commissioner Islamabad, Malik had to call off many of his designed land occupations. “This situation might remain in place till the parameters of a new set up emerge in the federal capital and the country,” revealed sources working the Bahria famed magnate. Since the departure of the Peoples’ Party government in March this year, every move from Malik Riaz to maneuver with the federal capital’s bureaucracy and police officials seems to have hit astonewall. Sources claim that Malik Riaz believes that all these hurdles are not the making of caretakers but are orchestrated by those judicial centers who feel betrayed by him. Therefore, he is hoping that no matter who grabs power in the center or provinces, his nexus with the DHA people will ultimately salvage him from any huge wrap ups. “Fortune seems to have gone on vacations for Malik Riaz,” commented one of his close associates, seeking anonymity. His purported US $ 45 billion adventure with Abu Dhabi group and then with a Hollywood playboy have all fallen apart, he added. With one mainstay of Malik gone, sources close to Establishment Division believe that fate of IG Islamabad, Bani Amin, would have to be decided within the next 24 hours. Bani Amin is believed to have irked the Islamabad High Court for not acting in a responsible way with regard to arrest of Gen. (retd)Musharraf. Sources informed that Establishment Division has been asked to implement the previous orders of caretaker Interior Minister Malik Habib to appoint Capt. (Retd) Zafar Iqbal from FIA as IG Islamabad. Zafar had gone on an official tour after waiting for his new posting for a couple of days and is expected to return in few days. The interior minister is believed to have asked the Establishment Division to call him back immediately and satisfy the court orders in letter and spirit. PM House spokesperson informed the media that Prime Minister Justice (R) Mir Hazar Khan Khoso has approved the following transfer/postings. Mr. Shahid Rashid, presently posted as Secretary Information Technology, is transferred and posted as Secretary Ministry of Industries on the retirement of Mr. Zafar Mehmood. Mr. Zafar Qadir, presently OSD, is posted as Secretary Ministry of Information Technology. Mr. Abdul Khaliq, OSD, is posted as Special Secretary Finance. Mr. Fazal Abbas Maken, presently working additional secretary at the PM’s Secretariat, is transferred and posted as Additional Secretary Religious Affairs. Mr. Hassan Raza Zafar, Additional Secretary PM’s Secretariat, is posted as Additional Secretary Commerce. Mr. Tariq Peerzada, Chief Commissioner Islamabad, is transferred and posted as Additional Secretary Finance. Mr. Jawad Paul, presently posted at NIPPS Lahore, is posted as Chief Commissioner Islamabad. Mr. Muhammad Asif Sheikh, presently posted at Establishment Division, is posted as Additional Secretary EAD.

See: http://wavelinking.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/malik-riaz-gets-another-bureaucratic.html

Landgrabbing: ‘Don’t let Islamabad become another Karachi’

ISLAMABAD: Landgrabbing in the capital came under the microscope in the Senate on Wednesday, as Senator Mushahidullah Khan ominously predicted that the capital would begin to mirror Karachi if the problem is not checked soon.“Today, the situation in Islamabad is the same as it was in Karachi some two decades ago. Then, the Karachi Municipal Corporation overlooked it, and today, every public park in Karachi is under the control of landgrabbers,” the PML-N senator said during a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat and Capital Administration and Development.
The observation came after the city managers briefly informed the committee about encroachments and possession issues the authority has been confronting with a number of projects around the capital.
Senator Kalsoom Perveen chaired the meeting, where issues related to Park Enclave, Kuri Model Village and permission granted to Bahria Town for construction of an access road to Bahria Enclave were among the topics discussed.
In his agency’s defence, CDA Chairman Tahir Shahbaz, who took charge on October 2, 2012, sounded off the same answers from his last appearance before the committee — he needs some more time to streamline CDA affairs.
To every question on progress in long-neglected and delayed projects, the chairman simply smiled and confidently explained how upright a person he was and the number of difficulties he faced to “successfully cope with” the plethora of issues.
At one point, Senator Khan actually praised the chairman’s skills with the spoken word, saying, “You talk well. I am impressed by this quality of yours.”
The CDA chairman also recalled the recent past, when a number of MPs joined hands with illegal occupants of a predominantly Afghan slum for political gains and resisted the CDA’s attempts to retake possession of the land.
On hearing this, almost every member of the committee, including Senators Saeeda Iqbal, Kamil Ali Agha and Najma Hameed called for strengthening the CDA Enforcement Directorate and completely revamping the Law Directorate to tackle the burgeoning number of cases of illegal occupation and encroachment.
The CDA chairman informed that the law directorate has been computerised and that Abrar Mirza, a well-reputed officer from Punjab, would soon take charge as Enforcement DG.
Briefing the committee about the situation at Kuri Model Village, CDA Member Estate Shaista Sohail said the FIA had furnished two separate lists of fake affected people included in the CDA’s compensation award for Kuri Village, whcih were originally announced in 2010.
“There is a requirement to resolve the issue, as the award announced by the CDA in 2010 enjoys the status of a judicial order,” Shaista Sohail said.
She added that the matter is now with the CDA Law Directorate, while adding that the authority would not rely on FIA findings alone and it had been decided that the issue would be resolved in phases.
She said in the first phase, affected people whose forefathers’ names were on the built-up property award announced in 1978 would be given preference.
She said such straightforward cases would be settled by July, adding that a summary had already been approved by the chairman.
The committee called the Park Enclave project a complete failure. “Lack of interest is evident. Whatever the CDA has claimed so
far about the project has just been face-saving,” Agha said.
Senator Kalsoom Perveen also directed the Bahria Town Planning and Design DG to appear before the committee within a week and bring along the no objection certificate and layout plan of Bahria Enclave and its extension.

19/04/2013:

FIA given 2 weeks to probe covert real estate deal

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court has directed the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Lahore to complete its inquiry within two weeks regarding a covert real estate deal between the Defence Housing Authority (DHA) and the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) regarding the purchase of lands that belonged to gurdwaras. A three-member bench of the apex court, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, expressed annoyance over the non-appearance of the secretaries of DHA Lahore and Islamabad chapters, and summoned them again on the next date of the hearing. The bench also directed the incumbent and former Evacuee Trust Properties Board (ETPB) chairmen to appear in persons regarding the handing over gurdwaras’ land in Lahore, Sahiwal and Nankana Sahib; purchasing of plots in DHA Rawalpindi; and transferring Rs 960 million to the authority. It is to be noted that former ETPB chairman Asif Hashmi, who is allegedly involved in this illegal deal, is contesting the upcoming election from Lahore on the ticket of Pakistan People’s Party. During the hearing, the DHA Lahore secretary neither appeared, nor did he submit any reply. The bench questioned if the DHA secretary did not like courts, as he had not appeared in the case. The counsel for the DHA requested the bench to give three days for furnishing a reply. staff report

See: http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2013%5C04%5C19%5Cstory_19-4-2013_pg7_3

10/04/2013:

Bahria Town fails to provide complete documents to SECP

* Commission says it will order action as soon as company provides all documents
Staff Report

ISLAMABAD: The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan’s (SECP) enquiry into concealment of facts in the financial statements of the Bahria Town for three years, 2009-11, has entered into its final phase.
Despite continuous correspondence, the company has not provided around half of the required documents and the SECP believes that once the required information is made available by the company, it would be able to announce its decision and approve action against the company within next three months. The SECP has powers to impose penalty ranging between Rs 2000 to Rs 10 million on each director of the company with a warning for avoiding such kind of mistake while presenting the required accounts and information to the commission. The Enforcement Wing of the SECP has started enquiry after examining the financial accounts for the three years, 2009 to 2011, of the facts that need to be highlighted in these statements relating to deposits and other disclosure requirements a year back. During a series of meetings between the SECP officials and representatives of the company, a number of documents have been made available to the SECP. However, officials believe that there still are many important documents and information that have not being provided to the commission. During a recent meeting between the Commission and company officials, SECP asked for submission of more information and documents so as to safeguard the interest of the stakeholders involved in the company’s affairs. Explaining the scope of enquiry, sources at the SECP said that the commission intends to maintain highest level of transparency and fair play in these proceedings so that the reputation of the company does not get hurt, in case it has not done wrong. The company’s contributions in development of real estate sector and housing sector in the country are also being acknowledged and basic aim is to protect the money of the depositors. The official sources informed that the Rs 65 billion company needs proper oversight by the regulator, as its strict compliance with regulations and disclosure requirements would not only help depositors to get benefit but would also prove to be a benchmark for other similar companies in the real estate and housing sector of the country. The commission has said it is also cognisant of the activities carried out by the company for general public’s welfare, especially for the poor segments of society. Any mishap in financial issues, especially regarding the depositors’ money, could prove roadblock for the private investment in the mega housing projects being initiated in the private sector. Punitive action against one company would have positive impact on the working of others as well as this company to maintain further highest level of transparency, the sources added.

See: http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2013%5C04%5C10%5Cstory_10-4-2013_pg1_6

02/04/2013: Letter to the Editor, DAWN:

THIS is apropos of the news ‘Split in treasury benches over islands project” (March 14).The recently-signed memorandum of understating between real estate tycoon Malik Riaz and a US investment group for building a world-class safe city on Dingi and Bhundr Islands in Karachi worth of $20 billion has triggered a wave of protests.
Development lovers argue that this is a remarkable development initiative that will change the destiny of Karachi. This may or may not change the destiny of Karachi, but for sure, it will change the fate of the fisherfolk. It will make them more deprived. For the track record, development initiatives in coastal areas of Karachi has brought just worries and woes to the fisher folk.
Fisher folk resist this plan because their memories of displacement and deprivation of livelihood sources caused by the DHA in Gizri are fresh. The DHA has in the same way claimed that these initiatives will bring development. Yes, it brought it but for the already privileged people. What it brought for the indigenous fisher folk living there for centuries was miseries.
Since 1980 three makeshift jetties in Gizri creek have been demolished. In the first place, the DHA had stopped fisher folk from anchoring their boats at the main Gizri.
From there, they moved to the Jama Mosque in the premises of Gizri and subsequently to the Marina Club. Then, from the Marina Club they were forced to leave for Gutter Bageecha. From 2000 to 2005, the fisher folk of the village were completely barred from catching fish in the sea.
The new plan of a safe city on the islands, linked to Karachi by a six-lane bridge, will be disastrous for indigenous communities, biodiversity, mangroves, climate and environment.
The investigation into the proposed project now reveals that the safe city plan is not viable for various reasons. It will bring peril to the Indus delta, mangroves, fish species and the fisher folk.
This plan will be a breach of various national and international laws Pakistan is party to. These laws include Sindh Forest and Wildlife Department notification that has declared mangroves forest as protected, National Forests Policy of Pakistan (2011), National Environmental Policy 2005, UN Convention on Biodiversity, Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora and Ramsar Convention.
The displacement to be caused by the project will be a breach of the basic principles and guidelines on development-based evictions and displacement, universal declaration of human rights and the international covenant on economic, social and cultural rights.
To sum up, the safe city plan will prove a bad development model. In addition, this plan is not feasible for various social, ecological, cultural and environment reasons.
JAMIL JUNEJOHyderabad

See: http://dawn.com/2013/04/02/islands-development-project/

24/03/2013: Naseer Memon writes in the TNS PE:

Islands of Prospects

According to newspaper reports, real estate tycoon Malik Riaz’s Bahria Town and a US investment group signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for $15 to 20 billion investment on March 11.Under the project, Bahria Town, in collaboration with foreign companies associated with prominent US investor Thomas Kramer, would construct the world’s tallest building and a number of other projects some 3.5 kilometres off the Karachi shore.A spokesman for Bahria Town said the project, the Bodha Island City, would be developed within a period of five to ten years, and that it would comprise Net City, Education City, Health City, Port City and other infrastructure projects. The world’s most modern shopping mall would also be built on the Island City.According to reports, the Island City would be linked with Karachi through a six-lane bridge.Malik Riaz also approached the Sindh government for issuance of no objection certificate to commence construction work on two islands, namely Bundal and Buddo (locally called Bundaar and Dingi respectively), located near the Karachi coast.The Sindh government was under severe pressure of a highly influential personality to issue the NOC or stay silent. Port Qasim Authority (PQA), a self-proclaimed proprietor of the islands, has apparently sold these islands for the construction project of Bahria Town.This is not the first time these islands have been put on sale. Last time, it was in 2006 when former Chief Minister Sindh, Dr Arbab Rahim, attempted to sell these islands to , a Dubai-based real estate company. Emaar promised to invest $43 billion. Emaar had 85 per cent equity in the project, to build a model city in 13 years. PQA held 15 per cent stakes and was supposed to provide land for the project.The sordid deal was kept so clandestine that initially the Chief Minister of Sindh himself stated that the federal government had not taken the Sindh government in confidence on such a decision, and that his government would take up the matter with the federal government. However, the Sindh government capitulated subsequently. Civil society and environmental groups opposed the shadowy project. The scheme was later aborted without any public information.The afore-mentioned islands are actually two ends of one long island — locally named as Dingi on the west and Bundaar on the east.According to the “Compendum Report of High Priority Areas – Pakistan Component” developed by International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the island is actually part of Bundal/Khipranwala/Muchaka Islands Complex, which is included in High Priority Areas of Pakistan by IUCN.The island complex, spread over an area of 17,850 hectares is located at the western end of the Sindh Coastal Zone bordered by Korangi, Phitti and Jhari creeks.Bundal Island is one of the biggest and highest of all the islands along the Sindh coast, with a length of about 8km. The width of the island varies — it is about 4km wide in the north and 1km in the south. There are shifting sand dunes on the island, some of which gain heights of up to 3m. A portion of the northern area of the island is covered at high water and has a thick growth of mangroves at the extreme northern point. The eastern coast, covered with sand dunes, is steep and easily approachable by boat.In the south of the island, the shallow patch of drying sand has developed into a new island namely Buddo (Dingi) Island, which is the outermost island of this series.Ownership of the islandsOwnership of the islands has remained disputed as the Sindh government claimed the area was not leased to the PQA. Even the area leased to the PQA for port related-operations does not include the islands. However, the former Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz during his visit to Karachi on October 14, 2006 decreed that the land belongs to PQA.City District Government of Karachi (CDGK) also had claim over the islands. According to a newspaper report of October 8, 2002, the CDGK and four entrepreneurs, including a firm from Thailand, signed a memorandum of understanding for establishing an IT infrastructural project. The Karachi Technology Island City proposed to be set up on a 300-acre piece of land, opposite the creek of Karachi, and was seen as a key technological infrastructure to help institutionalise and internationalise Karachi’s IT industry with the help of international donor agencies and investors.PQA has been a major player in the race. PQA also considered the Bundal Island as one of the potential sites for setting up a terminal for Liquid Natural Gas (LNG). A consortium of leading Japanese and Korean companies expressed interest in setting up a LNG terminal at Bundal Island in response to an Expression of Interest (EOI) issued by PQA. The EOI sparked strong reaction from the Sindh government and the ownership of the area was challenged.The Port Qasim Authority also allotted 2,700 acres of land to Pakistan Navy, without any authorisation. Although Pakistan Navy later shifted the facility to Ormara for which the land was acquired yet it maintained its claim over that land.The Sindh government continued to claim the ownership of the islands. In a meeting held at Governor House, Sindh on February 23, 2006, a senior member of the Board of Revenue said that the island was a property of the government of Sindh. According to him, when PQA was established, its area of operation was defined, which does not include the Bundal Island.The provincial law department had also been of the view that the land allotted by the federal government was the property of the provincial government. Sindh High Court had also given a judgment in favour of the provincial government in a dispute with Defence Housing Authority about the latter’s claim to 250 acres of reclaimed land near the Clifton beach.The Constitution of Pakistan also supports the point of view of the Sindh Government: Article 172 (1) of the Constitution states, “Any property which has no rightful owner shall, if located in a province, vest in the Government of that Province and in every other case, in the Federal Government”.Ecological significance of the islandsRecognising immense ecological significance of the islands IUCN included them in the list of High Priority Areas. According to the “Compendium Report of High Priority Areas – Pakistan Component” developed by IUCN, total area under mangrove cover on these islands is 10,000 ha, which represents the habitat for juvenile fish and shrimp in the area.Bundal Island is the breeding ground of the Green Turtles. The sandy beaches of these islands are the only areas where the endangered Green Turtles visit the east coast of Karachi for breeding purposes. The ancient Ratoo Kot Fort on Muchaka Island (located closer to the two islands) can form a tourist attraction. It is part of the ancient history of Sindh and if rehabilitated could serve as an interesting historical landmark and attractive place for tourists.Local fishing community also is also dependent on these islands for livelihood. Out of the population of 25,000 of the coastal villages, 80 per cent fish in these waters. The surrounding waters serve as feeding grounds for two varieties of dolphins (humpback and bottlenose).The area lies along the Indus Flyway and as such serves as an important breeding and feeding ground for migratory and resident bird species.Protection of this treasure of nature is also an obligation by virtue of “Convention on Biological Diversity” (CBD). Pakistan is among the 189 signatories of the convention and the government has also prepared an action plan to implement the convention.Any development scheme which deprives marginalised people of their livelihood resources cannot be called sustainable development. The two islands with mangrove eco-system provide rich fishing grounds for subsistence fishing in surrounding waters. A large population of Ibrahim Hyderi and other small villages of fishermen find their livelihood through shallow water fishing around these islands.Their earlier fishing grounds became inaccessible due to the “development” of DHA and various boat clubs. Now with this development hundreds of fishermen families are bound to lose the nearest source of their livelihood. About 4,000 to 5,000 fishing boats sail in the open sea through Korangi and Phitti Creeks, located on both ends of the twin islands. There mobility can be restricted in the wake of development on the islands.It is worth mentioning here that when these islands were being sold during the Musharraf’s era, the then Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah, General Secretary of PPP Sindh Mr. Taj Hyder vehemently opposed the deal and termed it a conspiracy of federal government against land of Sindh government.

See: http://jang.com.pk/thenews/Mar2013-weekly/nos-24-03-2013/pol1.htm#7

Amir Mateen's series on Malik Riaz:

The good news is that the NAB finally woke up to stop Port Qasim Authority (PQA) from giving further concessions to Malik Riaz of Bahria Town to build, if at all he plans to do that, the alleged Island City, 3.5 km off the Karachi coast.Of course, Malik will continue to sponsor ads showing fabulous pictures of Dubai’s man-made islands besides announcements about building the world’s biggest Mall and the tallest building. No explanation is given about the equity; who will put in how much money and how. And this is about a whopping sum of $ 45 billion. But Malik Riaz keeps changing his figures as pennies in his pocket. After the Abu Dhabi Group backed out, Malik Riaz brought the figure down to Rs 15 billion investment through a news report from his ‘chosen’ editor and newspaper.The figure was ballooned to $ 15 billion in six hours and then to $ 20 within 24 hours--interestingly propagated by the same media groups. Bahria rose the figure back to its original claim of raising $ 45 billion in its ads published by almost all mainstream newspaper. Only this time there was no name and face of the investor, except the promise that a consortium of Arab and Europeans will descend upon Pakistan soon to pledge the $ 45 billion just because “Bahria commits, Bahria delivers.”Thousands of cases exist where Bahria has not ‘delivered’ with people running from pillar to post to recover their life-savings-- Awami Villas (DHA phase-2 extension), Bahria Town Phase 9, DHA Valley, REHC, just to name a few.What we have on the table is the grand arrival of controversial US investor, Thomas Kramer, whose net worth is $ 90 million. How will he bring in the promised money is yet to be seen. Malik Riaz shows a loss of Rs 107 million in his personal income declaration for the last three years (2010-12). He owes another Rs 107 billion in taxes as documented by the Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO) and much more to investors whom he is yet to ‘deliver’ despite taking billions in advance illegally. Yet he keeps buying jet planes, the latest being a $ 20 million worth hawker Beechcraft that he bought last month, perhaps to facilitate the electoral candidates that he is supposed to ‘deliver’ from every political party. The likelihood is that he may not declare the $ 20 million in his tax records as he did not declare the Rs 850 million that he supposedly spent on Shahbaz Sharif’s Ashiana Scheme.So the only concrete thing on ground is the dubiously acquired State land for which he invites investors.The NAB, we are told, took notice of complaints under the Prevention of Corruption Initiatives regarding the award of contract by the PQA. This was done after several complaints from Transparency International, consumer watchdogs and nationalists. The Sindh Assembly opposition lodged explosive protest against the sale of the ‘motherland.’ It got provoked because nobody consulted the Assembly about giving the project, which, among other things, entails building the world’s tallest building on its soil. Sindhi nationalists got incensed over Prime Minister Pervaiz Ashraf receiving the US tycoon who is accused of rape, child-molestation and many other traits that he shares with his hosts here.He was also received by the MQM contingent including Governor Ishratul Ibad, who went a step forward by offering him 4500 acres over and above the 1200 acres ‘delivered’ by the PQA. Malik seems everybody in his pocket. Who else can bring an alleged rapist and make the high and the mighty of this land receive him without any notice. “What is going on here?,” asked Sindhi activist Zulfiqar Halipota who led a protest rally in Islamabad. A placard in the rally asked: “How stupid can we become?”Endlessly, we think. The NAB surprised everybody by advising “the PQA not to sign any concession agreement in violation of RFP, government rules and regulations.” It bragged that it has made mandatory for the PQA to get the contract vetted by a panel of experts also “give a presentation regarding compliance of all terms and conditions of agreement by the Bahria Town.”The bad news is that nobody trusts the NAB, which is accused as “Bahria’s laundry shop” where they like to take their difficult cases to get a tag of piety. NAB Chairman Fasih Bokhari had his daughter working for Bahria Town earlier. Bokhari, who served in Pakistan Navy when Bahria was in partnership with it, was accused by a lawyer of having clandestine arrangements with Malik Riaz. Many think that the NAB shows interest to take the charge and give a clean chit to Malik Riaz. Only in movies, you might say.Interestingly, Malik Riaz identifies himself with movie characters. His web site actually shows a long note in his own writing comparing his life with the hero of Bollywood movie, Guru (Abhishek Bachan). His diary, titled “Guru or king-maker,” draws comparison between the life of Malik and the hero. Malik writes that, as Guru, he also grew against all odds. He particularly mentions the climax, where Guru thunders before an inquiry board that “I tried to play it straight but I was obstructed because nothing happened without bribery and corruption.” He goes on to describe that, as Guru, Malik Riaz also had to “open the doors” by whatever it took from “sifarish, muthi garam (bribery) or laathi (stick).” In the process, he says, he made himself rich and everybody else too. The crux is that, as Guru, the ordinary courts could not judge him as it is for the people to decide.One has to read the story of his life to understand all those TV outbursts that he made. He was simply trying to be Abhishek Bachan. The problem is: the real life is different from the movie world but nobody around him dares to tell him that. His Lordship tried but somehow failed in the end. You have to give him credit that he has actually lived a movie character. He has especially put the movie link on his web site. Pl check this out at http://malikriaz.com/ to understand this phenomenon.

Diary of Malik Riaz

See: http://www.thespokesman.pk/index.php/component/k2/item/2387-malik-riaz-nabbed-?-dream-island-crashes-x

21/03/2013: A report in the DAWN todays says:

Tycoon faces libel suit

ISLAMABAD, March 20: Property tycoon Malik Riaz faces Rs1 billion defamation suit filed by the former director of Defence Housing Authority (DHA) Colonel (retied) Tariq Kamal.
An additional district and sessions judge (ADSJ) of Islamabad Raja Khurram Ali Khan on Wednesday issued notice to the tycoon.
Mr Kamal who is also happened to be the secretary general of ex-servicemen society, in his petition said that Mr Riaz had defamed him in a TV programme aired on February 10, 2013.
Mr Kamal contended before the court that in the TV programme, Mr Riaz leveled serious allegations against him.
`Colonel Tariq Kamal is a blackmailer and he was demanding Rs200 million and a plot in the DHA` Mr Kamal quote d the property tycoon as saying.
Mr Kamal said that he was a retired serviceman enjoying respect as an upright person in the society and holding senior appointments in different welfare organisations.-A Reporter

See: http://epaper.dawn.com/~epaper/DetailImage.php?StoryImage=21_03_2013_152_002

20/03/2013: Bahria Town advertisement in the papers, claims that a conspiracy is being hatched to scuttle its project in Karachi

Malik Riaz Threats to Karachi Development

An article in the DAWN claims that Bahria Town Islamabad has illegally occupied government schools:

ISLAMABAD, March 19: In much of the country, “ghost schools” have been one of the most serious problems facing the education sector.A report issued by an Islamabad judge and submitted to the Supreme Court has found that in the capital, “land-grabbers” may present a more serious and unexpected threat.
Raja Jawad Abbas Hassan, a judge in the District and Sessions Court West, writes in the report that “fast-growing housing societies and their developers” have had a negative impact on many schools.
Of the 383 government schools in the federal capital, three have already been compromised just by land for and construction of Bahria Town, the leading private housing society.
The building of the Islamabad Model School for Boys, in Mal, Federal Area, “has been surrounded by Bahria Enclave… stopping the approach from three sides,” and the school has been abandoned.
Another IMSB, in Rajwal, continues to function but has also been surrounded by Bahria Town, whose construction work has made access close to impossible.
A third, in Dhoke Maie Nawab, “is running in a temporary building. The original building… was surrounded by Bahria Town,” and access for teachers and students alike became impossible.
The judge’s report adds that encroachment by private citizens has also compromised schools’ functions, with both the loss of land and fear of encroachers contributing to the problem.
An IMSB in Khana Naeeabadi has lost three kanals of its land to encroachment, while the IMSBs in Dhole Syedan, Phulgran, Bhimber Trar and Pind Malkan are “in very poor condition.”
Schools in rural areas have been found to suffer from shortage of staff, lack of drinking water, and lack of boundary walls.
Justice Hassan does not absolve the government of responsibility either, claiming that out of the Rs28.7 million allocated for government schools for this fiscal year, only 20 per cent has been released.
His report notes that policies could generally be improved, for example, by shifting surplus teaching staff from urban areas to the rural areas, where there is more need of them.

See: http://dawn.com/2013/03/20/land-grabbers-pose-threat-to-capitals-schools/

17/03/2013: NAB urges PQA not to sign islands deal with Bahria Town

KARACHI, March 16: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has advised the Port Qasim Authority (PQA) not to sign any concession agreement for the development of Bundal and Buddo islands which is in violation of rules and regulations. The PQA was told to get any such agreement vetted by the NAB

The Transparency International Pakistan (TIP) had also approached the PQA, asking it not to enter into any agreement for the development project because the developer has not provided a guarantee of Rs40 billion to the PQA, as required by the law. A statement issued by the NAB spokesperson Zafar Iqbal on Saturday said the bureau under its Prevention of Corruption Initiatives took notice of complaints about violation of several conditions relating to the Request for Proposals (RfP) by the PQA while awarding the contract to Bahria Town for the development of the Diamond Bar Island City (Bundal & Buddo islands).

He said the NAB had advised the PQA chairman not to sign any concession agreement in violation of the RfP, government rules and regulations.
The TIP while pointing out that the Bahria Town had not submitted Rs40bn with the PQA urged it to cancel any understanding reached between the two organisations on islands as it was illegal.
In his March 14, 2013 communication to PQA chief Vice Admiral (retd) Mohammad Shafi, the TIP`s Adil Gilani highlighted illegalities in the contract.
The communication says: `As performance bank guarantee of one per cent which is approximately Rs40bn was not deposited by the Bahria Town Pvt Ltd at the time of the letter of intent (LoI) with the PQA, so the vital tender condition has been violated.
The letter explains the performance guarantee (PG): `The successful bidder shall submit the PG from any scheduled bank with at least AA rating in favour of the PQA at the time of signing the LoI and the head terms agreement. The amount of PG shall be one per cent of the total project cost and its validity shall be for five years initially which will have to be continuously validated by the developer till one year after successful completion of the project.
The letter says: `Accordingly any further process of this procurement becomes automatically illegal, and concession agreement shall not be negotiated nor signed by the PQA. This is to inform the PQA that Col Najam of the NAB (Sindh) had informed the TIP today (March 16) that the DG NAB Sindh had taken up the investigation of this deal and sought TIP`s assistance.

See: http://epaper.dawn.com/~epaper/DetailImage.php?StoryImage=17_03_2013_003_002

16/03/2013: A new toy for the big man:

The aircraft was delivered to Bahria Town on Feb 19th, 2013 at HBC Indianapolis USA

A new advertisement in the Express Tribune. Unbelievable false claims but....

12/03/2013: After Plan A flops, Malik Riaz moves to Plan B:

Pakistan's first island city: Bahria Town signs $20 billion deal with US tycoon

American real-estate tycoon Thomas Kramer and Bahria Town CEO Ahmed Ali Riaz Malik signed a $20 billion agreement for Pakistan’s first-ever Island City, Bundal & Buddo Islands, Karachi.A joint consortium of international investors will join hands to develop this project and the deal with Kramer is the first level of this agreement. Announcement of other global investors from the Middle East and around the globe will be made soon.Covering 12,000 acres of land, this project will be developed in a span of 5-10 years but the residential communities will start being handed over to people in 2016. The global attractions of the project comprise world’s tallest building, world’s largest shopping mall, sports city, educational & medical city, international city and a media city – all having the most modern facilities and amenities and the most advanced infrastructure.Island City will be connected to the DHA Karachi via a six-lane modern bridge. The entire city will be a ‘high security zone’, having its own drinking water (converting seawater into drinking water) and power generation plants to enable it to be self-sufficient in electricity.The project will have mosques, cinemas, spas, golf clubs, school, hospital and other global standard amenities to furnish a modern lifestyle.Speaking on the occasion, Thomas Kramer said, “I have full confidence in the people and economy of Pakistan. In 1970 when I started my project in Germany it was the worst era of their history. Likewise when Miami Beach project was started, the area was in full control of Cuban criminals, different mafias and gangsters. Dead bodies used to be scattered on the beaches. I completed my projects successfully. Today they are the world’s most secure and advanced regions.“Current situation in Pakistan is much better than those areas. I am confident that this project along with boosting the economy will also eradicate terrorism from Pakistan. This is a once in a lifetime chance to bring Pakistan back on the map to the leading nations in the world.”The current consultant and former chairman of Bahria Town, Malik Riaz Hussain, said, “Our slogan is ‘Bahria Town Commits – Bahria Town Delivers’ and Alhamdulillah we have fulfilled all our promises made with Pakistan and Pakistanis. We know that the construction sector has played a key role in transforming the USA, Malaysia, Japan, Turkey and Germany into developed nations. In the same manner, Insha Allah, Pakistan will also become a developed nation, which is our vision. This project will not only provide 2.5 million jobs but will help revive 55 national industries and provide housing to 1 million Pakistanis. It will also help eliminate terrorism and crimes.”Thomas Kramer is a visionary businessman commonly known as TK. He surveyed an island hideout of Cuban pirates in 1991-92 and later on developed it into the present day Miami Beach, which is one of the biggest international tourist destinations today. He is specialist in building skyscrapers in coastal areas. His company has successfully constructed several projects around the globe.A spokesman for Bahria Town said that it’s an honour to join hands with a visionary developer of Kramer’s caliber.

02/03/2013: Amir Mateen continues his excellent series of articles on Malik Riaz:

Malik Riaz - Missing the Elephant

Malik Riaz runs a virtual state within a state. And this has been so for quite a while--from General Musharaf’s time in government, actually.
Here is a different perspective on the political happenings. Both Musharraf and Malik needed each other. Musharraf had to keep the military brass happy about his illegitimate rule. Malik was handy in providing the ‘goodies’ required to tie up the wagging tongues. Basically, lots of wealth in the shape of plots, favours, perks but mostly crude money. In return, Malik got facilitation and access to every level of power. A whole coterie of wheeler-dealers flourished in the process. The stakes, involving trillions of rupees, were so high that the economic interests of the civil-military coterie over-grew Musharraf. He became expendable for the larger vested interests. Enter Asif Zardari.
It was a match made in heaven. Few give credit to Malik Riaz who helped tailor the new political arrangement. He was instrumental in bringing the same coterie together in the same boat. It’s the same old script with the same old setting, characters and side-kicks that one sees at the Presidency. Only the protagonist, Asif Zardari, has been changed.
We give credit to the judiciary, media and the public for seeing the democracy survive for the last five years. The role of Malik Riaz gets ignored. Call it the vested interests of the coterie, the elite panoply, the mafia or simply the biggest real estate scam of the last 66 years—this may be the most crucial factor that kept the system going. This may seem far-fetched but is not irrelevant if one takes into account the money involved in the land-grabbing, tax evasion or sheer bribery in these housing schemes. For God’s sake, it’s bigger than Pakistan’s budget.
Even now the most important player in politics and the up-coming elections is Malik Riaz. Yet this key link in the political chain is missing from our discourse. He pervades all over but his role is not discussed as much as it merits. One gets to hear about him only in whispers, innuendo.
Not a single comprehensive profile exists of a person who happens to be one of the richest and the most powerful persons in the country. Political pundits keep harping on about wrong themes day-in and day-out. TV anchors ensure the viewers follow the distractions or, as the Punjabi proverb goes, the rear light of a moving truck (truck di batti). Come on fellows, it is akin to missing the elephant in the room.
The mansion in Lahore, allegedly made for the Man on the Hill, shows how much he is investing in the next government. But then this just may be peanuts in comparison to his stakes in retaining the official patronage. Now that he has ‘belled’ the Supreme Court, thanks to Chaudhary Arsalan, he reigns ‘Supreme.’
As of now, he continues to run the State, especially in the beautiful environs of the Margalla Hills. The Supreme Court ordered an inquiry against Malik Riaz in case of gross human rights violations. He was accused of fabricating evidence to involve some locals in fake cases and coerced them to
give up their land with the help of the local police and the revenue administration. Here is the official report of Islamabad’s Sessions Judge, Mazhar Hussain Minhas: “Islamabad Police, particularly from the Sihala Police Station, was completely under the influence and control of Malik Riaz. SHO Sihala Idrees Rathore and Sub-inspector, Ahmed Kamal acted as his personal servants and instead of performing their lawful duties played with the liberties of innocent people by involving them in false and baseless cases. In certain incidents, even police officials accompanied Bahria’s security staff for the illegal possession of land.”
Judge Minhas goes on to report that like the Police, the Revenue Department “is completely under the thumb of Malik Riaz. Revenue officers of Malik’s choice are posted in Bahria Town housing schemes. The officials follow his dictates blindly. Tehsildar Imtiaz Pervez Janjua admits that he is posted in Islamabad since May, 1998. Revenue Officials of Rawalpindi/Islamabad are committing illegalities with impunity and do not pay any heed even to the directions of the Courts. The officials facilitate him in land-grabbing and tax evasion”.
It goes without saying that the Capital Developmenmt Authority (CDA) remains Malik’s baby. He can occupy the CDA land with impunity. A CDA council recently told the Islamabad High Court that Bahira Town occupied over 1200
kanals of the CDA land, valued at Rs 1.25 billion, to build a road to its newly launched ‘Bahria Enclave.’ He makes the CDA launch schemes next to his own to accelerate the public rush and then sells his plots at half their prices. The Commission formed by the Federal Tax Ombudsman mentions Bahria’s scheme, Margallah Enclave, which it says “was a project apparently to swindle the hard-earned money of the general public. The Securities Exchange Commission of Pakistan, on the basis of an inquiry into the scam, had to penalize the directors of Bahria Town with maximum penalty.
Interestingly, his leverage in Punjab is no less. The Commission mentions that Punjab Forest Department has been the primary victim of Malik Riaz’s land grabbing. In the revenue estates of Lohi Bhir, Takh Pari and Murree over 11,000 kanals, valuing over Rs 6 billion, has been allegedly grabbed by Bahria Town.
The Commission concludes: “What seems apparent is that the critical State institutions have been fatally compromised, resulting in virtually non-existent writ of the law. Non-cooperative public officials and the hapless litigants/witnesses get routinely subjected to intimidation and blackmail. Fraud, deceit and the land-grabbing, causing loss worth billions of rupees to the State and private lands, seem the order of the day.”
Bahria continues to illegally collect advance money without any development and construction.
The Central Board of Revenue (CBR) seems to have been handed over to Malik Riaz. It is largely because of him that seven CBR Chairmen got changed in the last five years. The CBR has not verified any mutation record of Bahria housing schemes since 1997. The Commission points out that Bahria purchased total land for Rs21.1 billion during 1997-98 to 2011. It has not provided mandatory documentary evidence of mutation deeds reflecting transfer of ownership. This omission alone warrants income tax implications of Rs2.03 billion without penalty. Now you know why they still keep a CBR Chairman on contract.
Fellows, still doubt that the Malik runs the State?

See: http://thespokesman.pk/index.php/component/k2/item/1711-malik-riaz-missing-the-elephant-viii

28/02/2013: Dawn on the DHAI Bill 2013

ISLAMABAD, Feb 27: Contrary to the claims of the leader of the opposition, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, his Islamabad Defence Housing Authority bill passed by the National Assembly on Monday is no different from the one the PPP government had put to the parliament way back in 2009.
During the debate in the lower house, Mr Nisar insisted that his DHA Islamabad bill was line with what his party had been arguing since 2009. “It is now just a housing society, and not the one originally proposed by the government,” he asserted.
But a study of the drafts of their bills reveals that Chaudhry Nisar’s bill, passed unanimously, gives the DHA Islamabad overriding powers to make its own regulations, though laws applicable in the area of its operations, already exist.
Secretary defence will head its governing body, and its executive board will be chaired by Adjutant General of Pakistan Army or a serving lieutenant general nominated by chief of the army staff, explained the initial bill.
The bill carries no mentioning of DHA’s alleged agreement with Bahria Town of Malik Riaz which Chaudhry had criticised throughout the past three years.
The bill clearly suggested that the DHA would have constitutional cover, which no housing scheme in the area enjoyed.
Sources in the PML-N told Dawn the decision to vote for the DHA bill had been taken at the leadership level in Lahore, and Chaudhry Nisar was only asked to vote for it.
One of the main objections of the PML-N to the DHA, Islamabad, was its extension into the provincial land.
This issue was addressed by a similar bill passed by the Punjab Assembly for the DHA, Rawalpindi, during first week of January.
MNA Ayaz Amir of the PML-N has unequivocally opposed the bill as member of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Defence.
To register his protest as member of the committee, he even submitted a three-page dissenting note with the bill.
When his party decided to vote for the bill Mr Amir, who is also a known columnist, left the house quietly.
Despite repeated attempts, Mr Amir was not available for comments.
However, his three-page dissenting note says everything.
The DHA Myth
Chaudhry Nisar throughout as a leader of the opposition and Chairman Public Accounts Committee (PAC) kept criticising the DHAs of Karachi and Lahore for venturing into pure commercial avenues.
Mr Amir in his letter has also said the same: “We should not be confused or taken in by the name of defence housing authority. It is a housing society of the armed forces and its aim, like any other housing society, is to purchase and acquire land for the benefit of its members. This is a private business undertaking which has noting to do with national security.”
On Monday Mr Nisar argued that on his party’s insistence, a certain percentage of plots in the DHA, Islamabad, would be earmarked for the lower-rank army officials and families of the martyrs.
This is also the case with DHAs in Lahore and Karachi where army officials are given preferences in allotment of plots.
Constitutional Anomalies
Tracing the history of the DHA, Mr Amir said like other housing societies which were registered under the Cooperative Societies Act, 1925, first it was Gen Ziaul Haq who issued DHA order, 1980, turning the defence housing society Karachi into a statutory body.
Then Gen Musharraf took a similar measure in 1999 for DHA, Lahore, which was unprecedented in the constitutional history of the country.
“This is discriminatory in favor of one housing society which is in direct conflict with Articles 4 (equality before law) and 25 (equality of citizens) of the constitution,” Mr Amir has noted down.
Overriding PowersUnder the new bill, the governing body of the DHA has been given powers to make regulations as it deems fit for the benefit of the authority.
Addressing this concern in his dissenting note, Ayaz Amir said: “This ordinance confers sweeping powers on the DHA’s Executive Board: (It may) purchase or procure land …undertake any works in pursuance of any scheme or project…incur any expenditure…impose, recover, vary or enhance development charges (in relation to) cost of apartments, housing units, commercial projects and transfer fees and other charges in respect of any property, plot or project within the area of the authority…enter into contracts or any type of arrangement with any local or foreign entity…plan, develop and execute new developments and projects through joint ventures with local and international agencies, institutions and individuals.”
But Mr Khan didn’t touch this in his speech on Monday.
The outspoken PMLN lawmaker, Mr Amir, however, questioned powers of the DHA to levy taxes, which under the
constitution only government could impose.
DHA and Bahria TownAnother aspect that Mr Khan glossed over was the fact that his earlier criticism of the links between DHA and Bahria Town had not been addressed.
Chaudhry Nisar in the past had said on numerous occasions that Bahria Town under the garb of the DHA wanted to legalise thousands of acres of land which Malik Riaz allegedly had occupied in the suburb of the twin cities of Rawalpindi-Islamabad.
Mr Amir has also touched this side of the story as well saying, there was no secret that the DHA Islamabad had entered into several partnership agreements with Bahria Town, whose CEO was one, Malik Riaz.
Mr Amir in his letter has also raised query that how much land out of 178,000 which the DHA claimed to own belonged to Chief Executive of Bahria Town.
Mr Amir, who inside and outside of the house has relentlessly spoken against the bill over the past three years in his concluding remarks said, “Musharraf was his own master and could do as he pleased; indeed this bill is a child of his dictatorship and could have been famed under no other dispensation. It has no place in a democracy and should never have been allowed to come before the National Assembly.”

See: http://dawn.com/2013/02/28/pml-ns-dha-claims-and-the-reality/

Delays in DHA Valley irks investors

ISLAMABAD, Feb 27: The DHA Valley Project, a joint venture of DHA, the real estate entity of the army, Bahria Town (BT) and Habib Rafique Limited (HRL) has come under criticism after through an advertisement, DHA refused to accept last installment payments of the project. After payment of the last installment, plots were supposed to be handed over to the owners.
Although a clause in the agreement makes provision for delay and according to a BT official the delay is only temporary and plots after completion would be handed over to the owners.
However, recently formed DHA Valley affectees association is considering going into litigation against the DHA.
The project was signed on August 16, 2008, and the signatories were Brigadier (retired) Javed Iqbal then DHA administrator, Malik Riaz of BT and Zahid Rafique of HRL.
According to the project, BT and HRL were responsible for acquiring and development of over 40,000 kanals of land for DHA Valley, near Phase II of DHA Extension of Islamabad.
Following launching of the project in 2008, about 110,000 civilians and 41,000 defence personnel, including the personnel of the armed forces applied with the DHA.
After the application process was complete, members of DHA Valley started paying installments with regular intervals.
After the 12th installment, the authority was bound to hand over the possession of the plots to the members.
However on September, 2011, when the members were about to pay their last installment, the DHA issued an advertisement and restrained them from depositing the last installment till further orders.
It was our last communication with the DHA officials after that they never contacted us, said Riaz Hanif directly affected by the delay.
Those who had purchased plots in the DHA Valley were witnessing a higher degree of uncertainty because they don’t know what is going to happen with their hard earned money, which they deposited with the DHA, he added.
Hanif who is also a member of DHA Valley’s association said that in order to safeguard their own interest, they had formed an association recently to fight a legal battle with the DHA and land developers.
According to him, their demands include the immediate completion and handover of the plots to the members and in case the authority fails to hand over the plots to the members, then it should refund the amount, along with interest.
According to the agreement of the DHA Valley project, BT has the exclusive right for the maintenance of DHA Valley for 25 years.
Under the agreement, DHA and BT both opened a joint account ‘DHA Valley Master Account’ and all the amounts received in the account would be transferred to BT, within three days.
The agreement, however, did not set a time frame for the completion of the project as clause ‘a’ of section 10 of the agreement stated: “Time of completion to be delayed in case of events beyond control of BT.”
However, Col (retied) Tariq Kamal former director town planning DHA and an affected person of DHA Valley project said that he had pointed out some wrongdoings in the DHA affairs.
He lamented that the authorities instead of appreciating him terminated his services.
He alleged that over Rs62 billion had been taken away by the DHA and BT from about 150,000 members of DHA Valley project.
Another twist to the tale is an application by Dr Shafiqur Rehman. Mr Rehman, a rival of Malik Riaz, on May 30, 2012, in an application filed in the Supreme Court for taking suo motu action linked the matter of DHA Valley with the death of Lt-Gen Imtiaz Hussain the former managing director Army Welfare Trust (AWT) and Babar Ali Khan manager Askari Bank DHA branch, who was killed during a drag car race organised by BT.
On May 26, Gen Imtiaz was found dead in this bungalow. According to Dr Shafique, Gen Imtiaz procured huge loans for DHA Islamabad on the request of BT and was facilitating transactions from DHA to BT in connection with DHA Valley Project.
All the transactions allegedly happened through Babar Ali Khan who was killed in drag car race organised by BT, stated the application.
The benefactors needed scapegoats for fixing the responsibility of the mess and they eliminated Gen Imtiaz and Babar, the application added.
When contacted, the DHA public relations officer (PRO), he said, “I can’t speak on this matter.”
He said that the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) may be approached for getting official version of the DHA authorities in the said matter.
On the other hand, Col (retired) Khalil Ahmed, senior BT official said that DHA Valley is a huge project and it would need time to be completed.
He, however, did not give any specific time frame for the completion.
According to him, the development work is being carried out at the DHA Valley project and there is no delay in the project’s completion.

See: http://dawn.com/2013/02/28/delay-in-dha-valley-irks-investors-2/

27/02/2013: Amir Mateen has written a series of articles on Malik Riaz and how he has developed his empire with the Army's backing in The Spokesman. See: http://thespokesman.pk/index.php/component/k2/item/1556-nightmares-of-malik-riaz-vi

Politically Incorrect

Amir Mateen
Malik Riaz may have hundreds of cases against him but has never been jailed even once. Nor his son, Ali Riaz who is Bahria Town’s Chief executive. Both father and son have been nominated in numerous cases of murder, fraud and forgery but the so-called long arm of the law has been drastically short in their case. Even when the Supreme Court ordered their arrest, the Islamabad Police always came to their rescue.
Remember when five people died while watching an illegal car race that was organized by Ali Riaz in Bahria Town? The Supreme Court issued stern orders to arrest the junior Malik on a murder charge. “Ali Jail nahi jaye ga,”the Sultana Daku in Malik Riaz is believed to have thundered to Islamabad’s top cop. He never did. Islamabad police not only protected him from, interestingly, Islamabad police but made sure he was smuggled to Dubai. The case has since been ‘handled.’ Two former Federal Law Ministers issued statements against the charge. A dozen columnists and TV anchors criticized the judiciary for its activism. The country’s biggest lawyers were hired to contest the case. The prosecution was cooperative in framing a weak case. Bahria’s Security Officer took the blame for organizing the race, not Ali. Witnesses and the families of the victims have either been pressured into submission or bought over. Period.
This happens in hundreds of such cases where Malik Riaz is always the ‘judge, jury and the hangman.’ A similar pattern exists in most cases. A crime, usually involving murder in land-grabbing, takes place. Poor people get robbed of their ancestral land through fake documents or coercion. As the police is always partial towards Malik Riaz, the victims run to newspaper offices or to the courts for redress. In most cases the police tortures them further, involving them in fake cases and making them submit to the Don Riaz. If the victims are lucky the news comes out and the courts take notice of the complaint. But again the partial police, administration and the prosecution makes sure the evidence is weak and the Don gets away most of the time. It is the same Bollywood movie theme that we see again and again.
Dr Shafiqur Rehman’s case should explain. Dr Rehman, a land developer, is fighting Malik Riaz for the last 16 years. The ‘Dabangg-style’ feud between the two began in 1996 when Malik Riaz tried to acquire Rehman’s 900 kanals that wasadjacent to Bahria Town. Rehman won the case in a civil court after 12 years oflitigation. The land-grabbing, after all, is all about reputation and one blood spill could encourage other sharks.
Rehman claimed in his petition that Malik had asked him to withdraw or face dire consequences. When Rehman refused to oblige he was framed in a dubious murder of Malik’s guard, Mohammad Fayyaz, that happened a year ago.
Malik’s Security In-charge identified Shafiq as one of the ‘70 accomplices.’ Shafiq was picked up from Lahore by Islamabad Police without any jurisdiction and thrown in jail. When he got out on bail, Malik got huge advertisements published in the name of Fayyaz’s father, appealing to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Shafiq was painted as “the most dangerous man” from whom the deceased’s family sought protection. Shafiq claims that Malik had given the guard’s family six million rupees. Malik also nominated 11 other land rivals among the 70 accomplices. Most people backed out of their claims when framed in a murder charge and locked up by the blatantly partial police .However, Shafiq stood his ground.
In due time, the Supreme Court took up the case. Bollywood style, the story took a new twist when the deceased’s wife Shamraiza claimed Malik Riaz was the murderer before the SC bench. She accused Malik of murdering her husband just to blame it on his rivals. By the way, this was also the time when Malik Riaz got upset by the superior courts which led to his onslaught.
Shafiq got acquitted in the case and has now charged Malik Riaz of fabricatingevidence to frame him and others in a murder charge. Also accused in the case are many police officials. Shafiq claims that Shamraiza has since been paid another Rs 20 million to hush up. Most of the Bollywood-like script is from the Supreme Court proceedings that got published in the media sketchily. The perjury case against Malik Riaz and his son is serious as the fabrication of evidence in a murder case has the same penalty that is reserved for murder.
Believe me the next few months are more crucial for Malik Riaz than for the rest of the country that awaits the election. Many such cases are close to their conclusion. The noose seems finally tightening around the Don as he cannot survive without the official patronage. For the time being, he continues to run the Capital. The police are at his beck and call. He is given more security and protocol than any Minister. But the Don, we are told, can’t sleep these days and wakes up in the middle of the night because of nightmares. What if the PPP government does not return to power? What if the Islamabad IG Police is changed? What if they also change the SHOs of Bara Kahu and Sihala? What if his moles in the lesser judiciary and administration stop listening to him? What if Shahbaz Sharif continues to block his LDA schemes? What if he could not survive till next year when the two most important people get retired? What if he or his son Ali had to go to jail? What if Hamid Ali Khan and Aitezaz Ahsan also back out from contesting his cases? What if his paid anchors and columnists stop taking his tweets? Basically, what if he gets, in his own words "Scrooooed?"
No wonder he is building $ 45 billion castles in the air so that he could be spared from these cases in the larger ‘national interests’, the argument being that the saviours who bring in foreign investment worth “billions of dollars” should be spared for a few ‘omissions of murders, forgeries, frauds etc.’ The ads for a new castle of Port Qasim are out—more about that later. Nightmares should continue.

Malik saga - thriller all the way-V

The saga of Malik Riaz’s success is not just about a poor man making it big in a rich man’s world. It is more about the manner in which he did that. This tells about the country where bribery and kickbacks and the use of brutal state apparatus against helpless people can make you a tycoon—it just takes a few years. And this also says something about the state of affairs in the Army that promoted him and still retains him as a partner.
Malik Riaz got his big break when he lured the Pakistan Navy, called Bahria in Urdu, into starting a real estate venture with him. Since the armed forces were the biggest land developers in the country, before Malik Riaz arrived, the name tag Bahria mattered.
The military remains one of the biggest business groups in the country so any khaki connection gives the perception of stability. Or so was the situation before Army Welfare Trust (AWT) and Fauji Foundation got into some dubious economic setbacks. This has taken away some lustre off these corporate giants in the last 15 years. But back in the 1980s and 1990s, it was great to be associated with anything labeled ‘Askari.’ Malik Riaz got his breakthrough when the Navy got out of the joint venture with him but he retained the name tag Bahria. He has not looked back since then.
How he built the Bahria empire has all ingredients of a block-buster thriller. Except romance, you will find here every shade of action from the deep mystery about embezzling billions of rupees, the conspiracy at the highest levels to assassination accusations of Generals. Some of the charges are really serious.
An application of a land developer, Dr Shafiqur Rehman before the Supreme Court, which also got published in national dailies, should illustrate this. Dr Shafiqur Rehman is involved in litigation over land with Malik Riaz for the last 17 years.
He accused Malik Riaz of murdering former AWT Managing Director Lt-Gen Imtiaz. Police investigation declared that Imtiaz committed suicide and his family agreed with the conclusion. However, the application alleged that General Imtiaz being the AWT MD procured huge loans for DHA Islamabad at the behest of Malik Riaz. This is the same money that was paid to Bahria in advance for DHA Valley development for which the land acquisition is yet to complete. Remember the Rs 62 billion scam.
He goes on to allege that General Imtiaz as the Adjutant General (AG) Army and then AWT boss extended undue favours to Riaz. The DHA Valley joint venture, signed among the DHA, Bahria Town and Habib Rafiq Limited hugely favoured Malik Riaz as Imtiaz did not watch the DHA interests.
Shafiq alleged that the DHA was in no position to pay back the money. Imtiaz, who knew too much and was part of the whole scheme, was eliminated as a scapegoat.
Dr Shafiqur Rehman also accused Malik Riaz of murdering one Mansur Janjua who was an obstacle in a land development scheme in Sihala. He was allegedly killed because he being a friend of somebody very powerful was dangerous.
The application ends on a sinister note predicting that Islamabad DHA officials, who had benefitted Bahria Town at some stage, will get killed one by one. Author Geoffery Archer could not have written a better plot.
The application was not entertained by the Supreme Court but remains part of the official record and the news reporting its contents remains uncontested.
What’s going on here, one may ask. Clearly lots of money was made in lots of dirty deals, particularly in the last four years of the Musharraf government. The Director Generals of Welfare and Rehabilitation clearly obliged Malik Riaz, obviously not without a share in the pie, and have now left a trail of controversies for the Army to handle. We are told that the person who made the mega bucks is not even in the country. These dubious deals have virtually made the Army’s corporate empire bankrupt. And the focal point of the whole scam remains one old MES clerk, dear old Malik Riaz, No wonder he likes to be called Sultana Daku.
Sadly, the issue is still being pushed under the carpet and no attempt is being made to rectify the situation. It was funny when National Accountability Bureau took up the case under its wing. Malik Riaz got the copyrights of the title Bahria when former Admiral Fasih Bokhari was reasonably senior in Navy. Is there a connection here? A lawyer contesting cases against Malik Riaz in the Supreme Court was quoted as saying that he had submitted evidence of agreements between Malik Riaz and Fasih Bukhari with the court. “The NAB is laundry that they want to clean their mess,” he said.
In any other country, State Institutions keep themselves miles away from somebody who is accused of murder, extortion, land-grabbing, forgery, fraud, to name a few of the ‘charms that he is regularly accused of in hundreds of cases. Not so in his country where Malik Riaz remains the most sought after person.
The DHAs of Karachi and Lahore are supervised by the Corps Commanders but the Islamabad is handled by the GHQ, which means that the responsibility of anything that goes wrong here can be attributed to the Chief of Army Staff. The plight of the hundreds of DHA Valley victims, including the families of the martyrs, has damaged the morale of the institution.
This lust for super DHAs has also created a wedge between the civilians and the Army. As the one and only, Munnoo Bhai describes his new interpretation of the Two Nation Theory: There are two nations in Pakistan. One that lives in cantonments and the other that doesn’t.
Not only that, it has also created a wedge between the Army and the lesser privileged Air Force and the Navy. Will somebody do something about it.

The real power behind Malik Riaz -IV

We might blame the politicians for buckling under the might of Malik Riaz but the real power behind the man is the military brass. No question about that.
He learnt the ropes of the contracting trade early on when he worked as a clerk at Maintenance and Engineering Services (MES), a civilian branch of the Army that renovates and repairs houses. That’s where he honed his skills in the art of ‘wheeling-dealing.’ In due time, he made enough money to become a contractor with the same MES, this time ‘greasing’ the palms of the junior officers that he had trained himself in all things shady. They grew in career as he grew in wealth or may be the other way around. His level of the interaction has sky-rocketed since then.
The former MES clerk now has among his employees many retired generals. We are told he enjoys it when some of them carry his bag shamelessly. During the initial days of the infamous Arsalan Iftikhar case, a photograph showed two retired generals escorting Malik Riaz while exiting the Supreme Court. One was the former mighty in-charge of military’s political muscle, Major General (retd) Ehtesham Zameer, who ran the political section of the ISI during the Musharraf government. And with a ruthless abandon I must say. The other was the top man of military’s public relations, Major General (Retd) Shaukat Sultan. Perhaps their job description remains the same but this time for a different boss and a really different salary package. No wonder, Malik brags so often that his files never stop.
That one picture captures the state of affairs in the Army, which continues to lose respect because of its partnership with one man.
The former MES clerk seems an uncrowned Field Marshal in terms of the power that he enjoys in all things related to the Brass.
One two-star general, while he was Director General of Welfare and Rehabilitation (under which comes DHA Islamabad), constructed a palatial house on a hilltop for himself not in the DHA but in Bahria Town next door. The house is so grand that people come to see it as a tourist attraction. This is not to cast any aspersions but it was under his tenure that the DHA and Bahria got into the most controversial joint ventures. No proof but in such positions people are expected to exercise some discretion.
Malik was smart enough to realize in the 1990s, when the khakis engineered the fall of a government every two years, that the real power, among the three most powerful proverbial As in Pakistan, lies with the Army. He knew that having the uniforms on your back is the safest bet in town.
Turns out, that's exactly what Malik did. He sold the land to the DHA after grabbing it forcefully and illegally from not so powerful and influential individuals or housing society owners. Once under the control of the military, he knew there was no way it could come back to bite him. After all who would take the military to court even if DHA Islamabad, or some parts of it, are built on Qabza land.
The case of 2880 kanals owned by Revenue Employees Cooperative Housing Society (RECHS) should explain. The society land was proposed to be converted to Phase-9 of Bahria Town, and members of the RECHS would have been accommodated accordingly. But once the merger was complete, thanks to Pervaiz Elahi, Malik Riaz sold it to the DHA.
It has taken years of litigation and effort by the victims to pressurize Bahria Town to compensate through the courts. Many remain without compensation even after nine years.
Malik Riaz knew he had to keep generals in his pocket, along with the politicians and other civilians. That's why most of the generals count on his vast empire for future employment post-retirement.
Interestingly, one of the recently retired general - of the NLC scam fame - was the Garrison Commander in Lahore when Malik built The Mall of Lahore, a high rise, posh luxury apartment building smack in the center of Cantonment and right opposite the otherwise red-zoned Corps Commander’s House. To this day, people are amazed that how this construction was allowed at such a sensitive sight. He developed a friendship with the two-star general way back then and as it turns out (some say may be it was orchestrated) that the same gentleman was promoted and posted as the QMG in Rawalpindi who heads all of the army's housing and land related projects.
He is definitely an expert in knowing which hands to grease. Stories of many generals literally eating from Malik’s hands abound and they are not confined to Army messes. Also affected are lots mid-ranking officers, retired soldiers and, painful for the rank and file, the families of the martyred.
It’s a Rs 62 billion scam. The story goes that the DHA Valley scheme was announced with lots of fanfare. People bought free forms in black because of the hype. The scheme offered plots measuring 150 and 240 square yards to retired officers, JCOs and the families of martyred soldiers.
But the issue is that ‘the land ain’t there.’ The acquisition of around 80,000 kanal required for DHA Valley is far from completion. Those who got cheated include 110,000 civilians, 41,000 serving and retired military officers, jawans and the families of martyrs. I have seen people crying for the loss of their life-long savings. Enters Malik Riaz, the realtor tycoon was contracted to develop the scheme. You may not believe this but the Don was paid Rs 62 billion in advance. The DHA Valley is yet to acquire land but the money for its development was paid against all legal advice. Isn’t it mind-boggling?
Those who lost the money are found appealing to the Chief of Army Staff through press releases in newspaper offices. The COAS seems as helpless as anybody else before this former MES clerk. You have to give credit to the man.

Part III.Malik Riaz-the real power broker
Malik Riaz may just be a new phenomenon in Pakistan. No private individual may ever have exercised as much leverage over the state as he does. Is it because the state institutions have become so weak that they can be manipulated easily or is he a very smart man. Either way, this Realtor-in-Chief has got his tentacles all over.
He has control right from the office of the President down to the SHO at Islamabad’s Kohsar Police Station. He can influence khakis from the level of Generals to an MES clerk, the lucrative post from where he took his start to stardom. The media is under control as Bahria Town is one of the biggest advertisement-throwers. Most owners take favours worth their value, while the journalists, particularly a whole generation of easily purchasable new TV anchors are sometimes available even for crumbs. This makes a perfect setting for the reincarnation of Mario Puzo’s Godfather, Malik Riaz, to take the lead role.
The hapless people who get robbed of their land in hundreds of cases have no place to go. The only forum available to them, the Supreme Court of Pakistan, has now been cowed down, thanks to the shenanigans of Arsalan Chaudhary. One must give credit that Malik had the chutzpah to attack the superior courts and then get away with it. Now, he sees no obstructions in converting huge swathes of cheap land, mostly acquired through dubious means, into golden retreats, safari villas and golf clubs. His posh houses are valued at as high as Rs 220 million. Of course, he spares lots of patches for the lower and middle classes to keep up the ‘Sultana Daku’ image that he loves so much. But this largely benefits a small elite club that will continue to grow richer and richer. On his back are the chosen members of that exclusive Club - the most prominent being the President of the Islamic republic.
It’s common knowledge that Malik Riaz is the most important person at the Presidency. The President used his constitutional power to pardon Malik Riaz’s personal guard. The guard was sentenced to life imprisonment after he confessed about killing a person in a shoot-out in an Islamabad market. Who cares that the Presidential discretion is supposed to be used in very special circumstances. This encourages Malik Riaz to brag that he could walk into the President’s bedroom any time. Such bravado keeps the subordinates in line. In most cases he does not need to bother the President. The ministers or anyone who matters —everybody knows how important he is for the President. President Zardari’s sister, Faryal Talpur or somebody from his family is seen photographed at almost every important function organized by Malik Riaz.
Bureaucrats remain as obliging as Alladin’sGenie, especially if they want to live a ‘respectable’ life in the Capital. But he is more interested in postings and officials that handle things related to real estate —actually land-grabbing. Revenue and Administration officials are crucial but the most important is police. It is widely known in Islamabad that nobody gets posted on crucial positions without Malik’s approval.
Hundreds of people have recorded statements before various courts complaining about the police torturing and harassing them “at the behest of Malik Riaz.” In a prominent case, two citizens, Raja Qayyum and Habibullah, complained before the Supreme Court that they were beaten and tortured by SHO Idrees Rathore and DSP Malik Mumtaz on the orders of Malik Riaz. They were allegedly kept locked-up for three months, forcing them to sell their properties to Bahria Town.
Sihala and Bhara Kahu is a Malik terrain and, says a published report, no police officer could be posted there without the approval of Malik Riaz. The report quotes an incident where a Sihala SHO, Haq Nawaz got changed just because he did not give “due protocol” to a person sent by Malik Riaz.
Islamabad’s top cop is known to be a henchman of Malik Riaz. Rumour has it that he was instrumental in getting Malik’s son escape to Dubai when the courts ordered his arrest on the charges of murder. He risked Cntempt of Court many times by dilly-dallying on Malik’s arrest in land-grabbing cases. He twisted facts to evade the registration of FIR against Malik recently.
Malik controls Islamabad’s Police that recently risked fighting a war with their uniformed colleagues when a Rawalpindi court ordered Malik’s arrest. The property Tsar travelled with fleets of Islamabad's heavily armed police commandoes with orders to shoot Rawalpindi police if they tried to arrest Malik. The police forces of the twin cities, playing a cat-and-mouse game, came close to mutual bloodshed many times because of him. At one stage, Malik had the muscle to have Rangers posted at his house. So who runs this country, one may ask.
In his business, Malik needs official patronage. He was even more boundless during Musharraf’s time. The Chaudharies in Punjab loved to oblige and top civilian lackey, Tariq Aziz and his khaki counterpart, Lt. General (Retd) Hamid Javed delivered the rest of the country— of course on the basis of mutual reciprocity. The beauty of his model is that he gets all favours without spending much. In most cases he obliges them in kind by giving them plots that, interestingly, he acquires with their help. Smart, isn’t it?
The PML-N was opposed to Malik initially but then Shahbaz Sharif got his help in Ashiana Scheme. The extent of Malik's affection for Shahbaz Sharif’s son, Salman got disclosed in an off-camera shoot that somehow got leaked. Remember the ‘scrooing’ episode.
Malik Riaz is a fictional character. In real life the closest example one can think of is former Italian President Silvio Berlusconi. He bought media through his business empire and then used it for his political and business ends. Malik commands as much political control without coming into power directly. So far, that is. But we hear that he has invested huge investments on dozens of potential candidates. And this may be the reason for his recent friction with the Sharif Brother, besides the 25 acre villa that he allegedly built for the Man on the Hill. Who knows he might just take over this country at some stage. Who would not want that with half of the Parliament in his pocket? Imagine Malik Riaz as the PM.

Part II - Will the real Malik Riaz please stand up?
Malik Riaz of Bahria Town may be the best prism through which one can understand today’s Pakistan. He personifies the potential that this ‘land of opportunities’ offers, provided you know how to go about it. Palm-greasing, he says, is an essential skill here and that he knows how to attach ‘wheels’ to his work files — a metaphor used for bribery. “Believe me, nothing moves in this country without wheels and my files, I tell you, never stop,” he said boldly in a TV interview, an impish smile on his face. That tells something about the man and the country where he, like it or not, happens to be the most powerful person.
His is a rags-to-riches story that should beat the Carnegies and Rockefellers hands down. The ‘robber barons,’ as the American Moguls were labeled a century ago, got their share of flak. But the biggest realtor baron of this country remains unscathed because he has got the media literally in his pocket.
Not much is known about one of the richest man in Pakistan except for the bits that he has told about himself. Even Wikipedia says that the details are sketchy on how a small-time labourer climbed up the ladder to become the 10th richest man of Pakistan with assets worth $800 million. He may actually be worth much more if we take into account his ‘file-wheeling’ skills.
The information about him trickles down through carefully selected journalists who throw out carefully orchestrated images of his personality. A self-made man, he passed his secondary school exam by marginal numbers. Equally marginal were his skills as he could not even drive a car. He started off from petty chores, the first being a house whitewash. We are told that he walked for 10 kilometers just to save Rs 50. He had to sell household items, tears in his eyes, to get his daughter medical treatment.
He is as somebody living next door with whom ordinary people could identify; somebody they could trust with their savings. He almost comes across as Amitabh Bachan, as in Bollywood movie Tirshol, though of course minus the superstar’s beauty, particularly his hair. Suddenly, the hero morphs into a dazzling rich person that the lay people aspire to be. A halo of glitz and glamour circles around his head. Malik Riaz travels in his private jet, lives in seven-star mansions, parks a Bentley in his porch and drives with a fleet of SUVs with a battalion of armed private commandoes that should match the prime minister’s protocol.
Malik Riaz is undoubtedly the most powerful person in Pakistan. He rubs shoulders with the high and mighty that seem to be at his beck and call. He calls former prime minister Yousaf Raza Gillani’s son, MNA Abdul Qadir Gilani, as Bunny, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif’s son, Salman, who takes care of the family business, as Sill. I suspect, in the same pattern, he calls President Asif Zardari and Benazir Bhutto’s son, Bilawal, as Billu. His favourite pass time, we are told, is to order senior functionaries on transfer and postings using some real rough language. This happens on a speaker phone while the worthy guests get amused and awed by his audacity. The treatment was recently meted out to another Malik with an ‘R’ who, outraged at one stage, suspended the officers who had gone to Riaz for a prized posting. The matter got resolved by the Man on the Hill later.
On a typical day, he starts his day with a working breakfast with rich Arab Sheikhs; lunch at the Presidency — with aalu shora he says; evening tea with the Punjab Chief Minister; dinner with top generals and late coffee with the biggest industrialists of this country. But he does not sleep before giving ‘tweets’ to his favourite journalists on how and what to say in the media. If he does not run Pakistan, who does?
Malik remains the biggest paradox. He has got more faces than that Hindu mythological figure from Lanka. Is he the saviour who gives jobs to 20,000 people who in turn cater to a work force of 17000 ancillary industries? Bahria Town brochure boasts that 100,000 households are dependent on them. He goes on to claim, almost in the same hyperbole that he used in the $ 45 billion fiasco, that Bahria Town workers might stretch from Lahore to Rawalpindi if they are lined up with their arms stretched wide open.
But the questions remain: Is he the great visionary who changed the housing concept in Pakistan, providing the middle and lower classes high quality residential facilities at a much lower cost?
Is he the messiah who is seen feeding hundreds of people, helping the sick, needy and the handicapped? Bahria Town sponsors many schools, hospitals and charity organizations.
Is he the trouble shooter who somehow emerges as a referee in every political wrestling match. He played a role in Musharraf’s deal with Benazir Bhutto. He was again involved in the Bhurban meeting that led to an agreement between Zardari and Nawaz Sharif. He was instrumental in arranging a patch-up between Asif Zardari and the Chaudharies of Gujrat. Only recently, he popped up out of nowhere to play a role in Tahirul Qadri’s long march.
Is he the hero of the poor who, as Amitabh Bachan, made it big in the cruel world of the rich. He likes to compare himself with ‘Sultana Daku,’ a local version of Robinhood who looted the rich to distribute among the poor. There are more shades of his personality in real life than the roles that Amitabh may have played in films.
For many, he is worse than Prem Chopra. All that glitz about good work is just a smoke screen that he maintains to hide a sinister villain that comes across in dozens of cases that he attends in various courts and police stations all over the country. The crimes that he is accused of include murder, kidnapping, forgery, fraud, extortion and many other evil things that all Bollywood villains put-together could not have done. These cases run into hundreds, mostly involving land-grabbing where his goons forcibly took away land from poor people to sell houses, some of which cost as high as Rs 220 million—the Sultana Daku in reverse here. Just to explain the extent of accusations against him, he has still got at least three dozen cases before the Supreme Court, despite the disposal of double the number of cases. In one day last year, the Supreme Court issued 44 orders against Bahria Town in various cases.
So how do we judge him. Will the real Malik Riaz please stand up? It is all the more important to understand him as he enjoys the power in this country as nobody else. Whatever the case, he is surely a movie character who got stuck with ordinary mortals.

Part I - $45bn fiasco exposes Malik Riaz

The biggest-ever media con

Is this funny, sad or simply stupid. The clarification by Abu Dhabi Group about their alleged $45 billion investment in Pakistan may have exposed lots of things — and lots of people. One Malik Riaz of Bahria Town for sure.
He virtually conned the Abu Dhabi Group, Pakistani media and the public. We already knew about his hold on the Pakistani media. And it is not just about that one incident where he was caught red-handed with two TV anchors engineering news. The Bahria advertisements worth billions of rupees have simply blinded media owners who ensure that nothing is published against Bahria Town. News against Malik Riaz comes out only when he is summoned in the courts for the cases of murder, fraud, forgery, assassination attempts, blackmailing, to name some of the ‘virtues’ that he is regularly accused of.
But a more classic example of Pakistani media’s incompetence-actually capitulation-could not be given. Here is why.
The announcement of a whopping $45 billion investment in Pakistan was a dream-come-true story. This too at a time when nobody wants to invest a penny in Pakistan, and half of my foreign friends want to send their mothers-in-law for ‘sight-seeing’ in FATA.
It was simply mind-blowing. The UAE sacrificed its pride for having the world’s tallest building, Burj Khalifa. And because Malik charmed them so well, they let Karachi have the honour. Apart from building the world's tallest building in Karachi, the other attractions included a financial hub, sports city, international city, media city, educational and medical City, miniatures of the world’s seven wonders. It was amply flashed that “these projects would employ more than 2.5 million people and boost more than 55 industries like cement, bricks, iron, steel and glass.”
Malik Riaz came across as the Messiah who had bailed out Pakistan from its financial mess. Abu Dhabi Group Chairman Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak al Nahyan was quoted as describing Malik as a “visionary,” adding that this guaranteed that “we will Inshallah be welcoming first residents in next 3-4 years.” As if he was not a ruler but a real estate agent.
Media outlets competed with each other in flashing the news amidst incessant advertisements from Bahria Town. Newspapers were also found outdoing each other. Most newspapers, English and vernacular, presented what was basically a press statement by Bahria Town as “independent news.” Nobody checked whether the Abu Dhabi Group, the UAE government or even the international wire services issued any news about an investment that was worth, no less, than $ 45 billion. Not a single journalist bothered to even check if there was any news of this sort on any website of the UAE companies or whether Sheikh Nahayan had actually said those words. The half-page advertisement on newspapers' front pages, showing Malik shaking hands with the Sheikh seem to have blinded everything. Or perhaps they were told not to test their editorial discretion.
The so-called most credible English newspaper went a step ahead by giving a joint dateline of Karachi and Islamabad instead of Dubai. It added colour to the story by quoting a Karachi magnate, of course on the condition of anonymity, that the construction site would be “Kutta Island,” which is 3 to 4-km off the coast of Karachi. It went a step further than what Malik Riaz had claimed, informing readers that “the Abu Dhabi Group-Malik Riaz would, apart from the above mentioned projects, also launch into building of 125,000 houses on the island.” (sic)
The reporters also made sure to confirm it from the source of the press release, Malik’s son Ali Riaz, instead of checking from the Abu Dhabi Group or even their local counterparts here in Warid, Wateen or Bank Alfalah.
Imagine an investment of $ 45 billion takes place in a place as Pakistan and the news is not on CNN, BBC, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times or even Reuters and AFP. Fellows — where was the common sense.
Last time, the UAE committed half the amount for construction on the same Kutta island (known as such because people dump stray dogs there) but the Monarch, Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum himself arrived for such a big announcement. However, not a penny came as the UAE was eyeing for Gwadar Port as compensation.
It is actually funny how the media got duped. And that is exactly how they took it in Dubai. A friend who works for The Gulf News shared that journalists there could not believe it in their morning meeting. Everybody laughed as the entire Pakistani media was conned so easily. The Gulf News did not carry the story as there had been no announcement from anywhere. Internationalist journalists saw this “stupid news” on the web and just ignored it.
My Dubai friend, knowing Bahria’s leverage on Pakistani media, could understand that the news got carried on the first day. “But how about the five days after that,” he asked, confused. “Why nobody followed-up on the story that was supposed to be the biggest investment in the country’s history.”
It turns out that the Abu Dhabi Group and the UAE government was aghast at the development. But since they have lots of investment here they did not want to embarrass Pakistanis. A small news was leaked through Reuters wherein Sheikh Nahayan, while talking to a reporter in a Dubai exhibition, clarified that the investment might materialize in 15 years. He also dispelled the impression about building the tallest building in Karachi, saying that the business plans were “at a very early stage.”
No paper except The Spokesman carried the story. Sheikh Nahayan also explained that the MOU was signed in his capacity as the owner of his private company, Dhabi Contracting and not as the chairman of the conglomerate, Abu Dhabi Group. He could not have been more specific when he said that it would materialize in phases, adding, “every phase will be studied by itself... It depends on the situation when we decide to go ahead with the projects."
This was to clarify the wrong impression given here by Bahria Town that it was Abu Dhabi Group and not Dhabi Contracting that signed an MOU that only showed minor interest in business here. Still, nobody took the hint here as advertisements kept coming. Nobody questioned that how could a private company in Pakistan commit a $45 billion investment without the government being in the loop. Imagine the world’s biggest building and residential quarters for millions being constructed without any representative from the provincial and federal governments. In Sheikh Nahayan’s case, the assumption of the UAE government could be forgiven as he is a minister and Chairman of Abu Dhabi Group.
A whole bandwagon of Urdu columnists and TV anchors was found eulogizing Malik Riaz as the savior of the country. After five days, it just became too much for the UAE rulers and they had to issue the clarification that everybody read in newspapers on Friday.
Obviously, the Dubai rulers knew they were duped into that photo-up and their reputation was being used for petty benefits. It is easy to understand the benefits. This kind of news changed the scenario for Malik Riaz. He was being hounded by the courts in numerous cases, some of them seriously heinous. He was in conflict with LDA over opening new housing schemes in Lahore without permission. He was also in conflict with the army for land dispute with DHA that affects thousands of former army officers and jawans. All of this may have shaken the public confidence in his housing projects. In monetary terms this could mean a loss of billions of rupees for him. Such news about building the tallest building in Karachi is worth a lot though. Even if it had not materialized, the impression of a partnership with the Dubai rulers would have rewarded him billions of rupees in terms of public confidence. Elementary, isn’t it.
But the question remains: Was our media (of which I am a part by the way) stupid, incompetent or simply capitulated before the owners. A little bit of everything I think. I was dared by a colleague on twitter that we shall see some expose` when I get up on Saturday. I hope so but am not sure about it.

Copies of the complaint letters filed by Col (r) Tariq mentioned in the above articles:

See: http://thespokesman.pk/index.php/component/k2/item/1556-nightmares-of-malik-riaz-vi

24/02/2013:

DAWN Editorial:

Big-ticket Drama

FROM the very beginning it didn`t smell right.

Perhaps it was just the general mistrust of infamous tycoon Malik Riaz, but even the basic premise didn`t add up. A $45 billion foreign investment in Pakistan at a time when the economy is barely growing? The world`s tallest building in Karachi where would the tourists and companies needed to fill it come from? A prominent member of the Abu Dhabi ruling family so publicly adding his name to a project with one of Pakistan`s most controversial businessmen? Nothing quite added up, and Mr Riaz`s reputation didn`t help. So it was hardly surprising when ads, seemingly issued by the Abu Dhabi Group and completely denying any investment agreement, appeared in the national press this week. And until Bahria Town officially responds, which it seems reluctant to do, its silence will suggest the ads are genuine.

In other words, the much publicised `deal` seems to have been to a large extent a fabrication.

Whatever the truth of the matter, one thing is for sure: it has made Pakistan look even more laughable as an investment destination. Drama of this kind is precisely what the country`s investment-starved economy doesn`t need. We already have a bad record of scrapping big-ticket foreign investment projects when new governments want to undo the achievements of their predecessors. Those projects that do get off the ground have to subordinate their business sense to the political whims of whoever is in power. And Pakistan`s security situation and political uncertainty are hardly attractive. On top of all this, for one of the country`s biggest businessmen to invent a partnership with a major foreign investor that doesn`t exist and launch it with such a splash achieves little more than embarrassing the country and ensuring that foreign partners will think twice in the future.

See: http://epaper.dawn.com/~epaper/DetailImage.php?StoryImage=24_02_2013_009_003

C Shujaat comes out to bat for Riaz:

Public money being used against Riaz

LAHORE, Feb 23: PML-Q President Chaudhry Shujaat Husain has said the Punjab government is spending Rs30 million daily on the publication of advertisements against Malik Riaz Husain on account of his character assassination and personal enmity.

In a statement issued here on Saturday, Shujaat said this money was allocated for welfare of the people, but misused to defame Bahria Town.He said: `Malik Riaz is running hospitals in Lahore, Rawalpindi and Islamabad. These are providing free dialysis, kidney transplants, hepatitis and other treatment free of charges; about 100,000 people are provided with free meals twice a day and if anyone wants to see what arrangements are made for providing food to the needy, he can go and see Bahria Dastarkhwan in front of PIMS Hospital in Islamabad.

Shujaat said there were more wealthy people also in the country than MalikRiaz but none of them bothered to get Pakistanis held hostage by Somali pirates for six months released. It was Malik Riaz who paid Rs130 million ransom to get fellow Pakistanis freed.

`Bahria Town is the only housing colony where there is no electricity loadshedding nor watchmen are required to be hired for security,` he said.

He said the Punjab government was trying to harm reputation of Malik Riaz for personal interest and using public money.

See: http://epaper.dawn.com/~epaper/DetailImage.php?StoryImage=24_02_2013_002_004

Half page ad by Bahria Town: A bunch of random statements which don't really add up to much, but no doubt will lead to several proclamations of - Malik Riaz - nation builder.

23/02/2013: A busy day today, the DAWN had three articles related to Malik Riaz.

LDA locks horns with real estate group

LAHORE, Feb 22: The ongoing tussle between the Lahore Development Authority and a known real estate business group on the issue of the approval of three extended sectors in its town on Link Canal Road (near Mohlanwal) seems to have intensified after completion of Bilawal House there.

Both LDA and Bahria Town have launched an advertisement campaign through the print media, levelling allegations against each other. The LDA has also displayed banners against the group at various city spots, requesting people to avoid buying plots in sectors D, E and F of Bahria Town near Mohlanwal (Multan Road) and Bahria Safari Town (Bahria Orchard) on Raiwind Road for being developed without approval of any competent authority.

The Bahria Town administration claims to have its sector A, B and C approved by the Allama Iqbal Town Municipal Administration.

Through advertisements, it also declares its sectors D and E completely developed projects for which it claims to have submitted applications to the respective TMA (Iqbal Town). It, however, declares its sector-F project under planning process.

Although the LDA claims to have informed the public at large about several illegally developed housing schemes including the Bahria Town from time to time, the campaign has been intensified after President Zardari formally visited and stayed at the Bilawal House this month.

PPP leaders say that since completion of the Bilawal House and president`s visit and stay there, the PML-N led Punjab government is targeting the group unnecessarily.

`We are surprised why the LDA didn`t take action against Bahria Town in the past. Why they are taking such an action now,` PPP leader Shaukat Basra saidwhile talking to Dawn.

He said it was typical of the Sharifs to not tolerate others at their turf. They always targeted people as they lacked courage to face their rivals.

The LDA administration rejects the perception, stating that the move had been launched equally against all those illegally developing, marketing and selling residential and commercial plots.

`We act against all those developing schemes and selling plots in violation of the rules and regulations,` LDA Director..General Ahad Khan Cheema told Dawn. He said the LDA had neither taken action against Bahria Town at the behest of any political party nor was it planning to defame any particular business group or individual.

He said the Bahria Town administration itself stated in its advertisement that it had only submitted application for getting approval from the TMA about developing sector D and E and declared its sector F under planning process.

`The group`s act of marketing and selling plots to people without taking approval from anyone is absolutely illegal, he said.

He said similarly the organisation`s efforts of marketing and selling plots in Bahria Orchard was also an illegal act as the group`s administration didn`t get approval from any competent authority. He quoted section 18 (2) of the Private Housing Scheme and Land Subdivision Rules-2010 according to which the sale of such plots in any schemes were prohibited until grant of the final approval from the authorities concerned.

`So, it is our duty to inform the people so that are not misguided while making investments in residential schemes,` he said.

Asked whether the LDA would stop construction work on the projects, Mr Cheema said: `We have currently no plan to take such an action.An official, while talking to this reporter, quoted a recent notification of the City District Government of Lahore that bans development of any sort of residential scheme at various roads/spots of the city including the west part of Raiwind Road.

`Apparently the west part of Raiwind Road goes up to Raiwind city. And this is the road where the PML-N top leaders reside. So, the action indicates that the leaders do not want to see development of any more residential schemes around,` the official explained.

DCO Noorul Amin Mengal said the ban on development of residential schemes at west Raiwind Road or other four places was not only to avoid mushroom growth of residential schemes but also to promote sowing of crops on agriculture land. `Owing to utilisation of agricultural land for commercial purposes (such as development of residential schemes) in the city district, people are forced to buy fruits and vegetables at much higher rates compared to other districts. That is why we decided to stop development of residential schemes on agricultural land. It will also save our green areas,` Mr Mengal explained.

A Bahria Town spokesperson, Ms Nida initially said she would try to send documents regarding approval of sectors A, B and C by the TMA but later did not attend calls by this reporter.

According to documents obtained by Dawn from other sources, the Bahria Town got approval for its sectors A and B on July 30 and Aug 6, 2001 respectively from Zila Council, Lahore. But there was no record about approval of the sector C. As for sectors D and E, the group claims it has submitted applications to the TMA. However, it has yet to submit any application for getting approval of sector E.

See: http://epaper.dawn.com/~epaper/DetailImage.php?StoryImage=23_02_2013_002_006

Bahria keeps quiet on UAE group's clarification

SLAMABAD/LAHORE, Feb 22: The administration of Bahria Town (BT) housing scheme kept mum on Friday despite a damaging clarification from Abu Dhabi Group (ADG) that there was no agreement between them for a $45 billion investment in Pakistan`s housing sector.

A large advertisement published in national dailies on behalf of ADG said the management of BT floated a misleading news item on Feb 15 claiming that BT and ADG had signed an agreement under which the group will invest $45bn in the housing sector and build the world`s tallest building in Karachi.

A number of attempts were made to contact owners and officials of BT, but they did not come out with their group`s reply to the ADG disclaimer.

However, Col (retd) Tanveer Ahmed, personal secretary to the owner of BT, Malik Riaz, did talk on the matter and challenged authenticity of the advertisement. He claimed that the advertisement was got published by some people who were against BT, and not by the management of ADG.

`There was no telephone number or e-mail address in the advertisement. This shows that it was fake,` he said.

He, however, had no reply to a query that if the advertisement was fake, why the BT administration had not come on the media with its version.

Attempts were also made to seek comment from the BT spokesperson, Ms Nida, but she refused to speak on the subject. She attended a phone call and assured that she would call back soon with an official version, but neither did she call back nor attend any call later.

The advertisement published in newspapers on Friday said a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding was entered into by Dhabi Constructing Establishment, a business unit based in Abu Dhabi, which is wholly owned by Sheikh Nahayan Mabarak Al Nahayan, and not by ADG. The MoU, it added, was simply an indication of interest by Dhabi Constructing Establishment to provide technical support and assistance to BT for the project as, when and if appropriate commercial terms and conditions were agreed upon. The clarification said since the discussion between the parties did not reach any conclusion, the MoU had been cancelled.

See: http://epaper.dawn.com/~epaper/DetailImage.php?StoryImage=23_02_2013_014_001

Land Fraud, property tycoon and son to be indicted on March 2nd

RAWALPINDI, Feb 22: On Friday, Rawalpindis Accountability Court scheduled for March 2 the indictment of the accused in the land fraud case brought by the AntiCorruption Establishment against Bahria Town and Punjab revenue department officials. Bahria Town owner Malik Riaz and his son, Ali, have also been accused in the case.

According to Sardar Zulgarnain, a prosecutor from the National Accountability Bureau, as the NAB has already initiated the process to have the charges against Malik Riaz and his son dropped, the two could not be indicted on March 2.

The case was originally registered on November 4, 2009, on the complaints of residents of villages near Rawat.

Malik Riaz and his son, along with twelve others, were accused of bribing revenue officials in order to have 1,401 kanals of community land, or `shamilat,` transferred to their ownership with fake documents.

Sadagat Ali Khan, Prosecutor General of Punjab, however, said the bureau`s application filed under the National Accountability Ordinance of 1999 has notyet been decided on by the court.

On February 16, in fact, the AC judge allowed Khan to present arguments against the NAB`s application.

As long as that application is not approved, the PG told Dawn, the father and son would be indicted as scheduled, along with the other 13 accused.

On Friday, a Punjab government prosecutor, Khawaja Sohail, represented the ACE before Judge Chaudhry Abdul Haq. Saying that PG Sadagat Ali Khan was `busy` in the Supreme Court, he asked the AC to adjourn until a later date.

However, Khawaja Sohail produced before the Accountability Court an order from the Lahore High Court`s Rawalpindi bench, in which the LHC validated the ACE`s inquiry into the land fraud case in September 2012.

He also submitted a copy of a show-cause notice issued by the LHC to Admiral (retired) Fasih Bokhari, Chairman of NAB, on February 18.

The notice was in response to a petition, from ACE, asking the court to initiate contempt proceedings against Admiral Bokhari for `re-investigating` the case of Malik Riaz and his son.

See: http://epaper.dawn.com/~epaper/DetailImage.php?StoryImage=23_02_2013_153_004

22/02/2013: In response to the claims of $45 Billion of investment, the Abu Dhabi Group has issued the following clarification in newspapers across the country:

Abu Dhabi Group Bahria Town Clarification

10/02/2013: So I stopped updating this blog, thinking that eventually what go's around, comes around. However, if your name is Malik Riaz and you offer a consumer culture that everyone aspires to, you can pretty much get whatever you want. However, today comes the unsurprising news that NAB has given Malik Riaz and his son the clean chit, after NAB took over all the cases:

RAWALPINDI: Days before the formation of a caretaker set-up, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has exonerated property tycoon Malik Riaz Hussain and his son Ali Riaz Malik from a four-year-old land fraud case.

The Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) had registered the case against Bahria Town and some officials of the Punjab revenue department on Nov 4, 2009, on the complaints of residents of some villages near Rawat. Malik Riaz, his son and others were accused of bribing revenue officials to get 1,401 kanals of ‘shamilat’, or community land, transferred to their names on fake documents.The ACE conducted four inquiries into the matter. Initially, it exonerated Malik Riaz and his son, but later implicated both of them in the case after the Supreme Court, during hearing for bail of an accused on May 23, 2011, observed that the ACE had cleared the influential beneficiaries and booked the less influential persons in the case.

After the directives of the apex court, the ACE director general constituted a four-member team to investigate the case and it submitted its report to the court in Sept 2011, nominating Malik Riaz, Ali Riaz and 14 others as accused.During the investigation, then governor Sardar Latif Khosa ordered suspension of the inquiry against the tycoon but the Punjab government refused to do so.

An Anti-Corruption Court (ACC) of Rawalpindi in October 2011 issued the arrest warrants of Malik Riaz and his son.

Malik Riaz filed a petition in the LHC for the quashing the inquiry but when the court summoned him he went to the Supreme Court and obtained interim bail.

Meanwhile, Admiral (retd) Fasih Bokhari took over as the National Accountability Bureau’s Chairman in October 2011 and in November issued a letter for transfer of the land fraud case from the ACE to NAB.

The Punjab ACE challenged the in LHC’s Rawalpindi bench.

It alleged that ten transfer of the case had been sought in order to exonerate Malik Riaz and his son through a ‘friendly prosecution’.

In July last year, the ACC ordered confiscation of the property of the two because they did not join the court proceedings despite repeated summons and issuance of warrants for their arrest.A division bench of the LHC on Sept 19 set aside the NAB chief’s letter but referred the matter to the ACE court to decide the fate of the case.

The LHC observed that the ACE inquiry which had found Malik Riaz and his son guilty was valid because it had been conducted by its most senior officials.

In October last year, the ACC on request of NAB transferred the matter to the accountability court.On Saturday, NAB Prosecutor Sardar Zulqarnain told the accountability court that after examining the available record and evidence the bureau had found that Malik Riaz and his son were not liable to be accused.

He told Dawn that the businessman and his son were victims of the land fraud but the ACE had wrongly implicated them in the case despite the fact that their names were not in the FIR.

According to him, the NAB prosecutor general had dropped the charges against Malik Riaz and his son while exercising powers vested in under Section 31-B.

Punjab Prosecutor General Sadaqat Ali Khan, who represented the ACE in the LHC, said when contacted that the NAB application for the withdrawal of the reference had proved the bureau’s intentions and a nexus between Admiral Bokhari and Malik Riaz.

“I am hopeful that the accountability judge will not accept the NAB’s application for withdrawal of the reference against Malik Riaz and his son because both of them are the prime accused in the land fraud case,” he said.

“Our petition against the transfer of the case is also pending in the Supreme Court and we will bring the recent development into the notice of the apex court,” he added.

Accountability Judge Chaudhry Abdul Haq adjourned the proceeding till Feb 16 when the NAB prosecutor and Malik Riaz’s counsel will argue on the application for dropping the reference.

See: http://dawn.com/2013/02/10/nab-gives-clean-chit-to-riaz-in-land-scam/

20/07/2012: So Malik Riaz flew down to Karachi to get protective bail from the Sindh High Court as he faces arrest under orders from the judge from the Rawalpindi bench of the LHC.

ISLAMABAD - The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Thursday snubbed real estate tycoon Malik Riaz and issued to him “the last warning” to appear before the joint investigation team on Friday (today) to record his statement and evidence with the investigators otherwise an ex-parte proceedings would be initiated.

The NAB joint investigation team had summoned the real estate developer to personally appear and record his statement in Dr Arsalan graft case. The team will interview and examine Riaz on the details of his allegations leveled against Arsalan.

A source told Pakistan Today that Riaz had earlier sought exemption from appearance before the investigation team on July 16 on the pretext that he had to appear before the SC the same morning in a contempt of court case.

NAB spokesman Zafar Iqbal also confirmed the warning issued to Riaz as an official handout was also issued in this regard.

“We had entertained his request due to his engagement at the apex court and July 19 had been fixed for his appearance. However, Malik Riaz again did not appear before the JIT and his staff informed that he had to leave for Karachi to appear before Sindh High Court Karachi to seek the court orders for protective custody. The counsel for Malik Riaz also submitted an application with the JIT and sought delaying his appearance until Monday, July 23,” said the source.

The source said the joint investigation team took exception to the “non-cooperative behaviour” of Malik Riaz and issued him a “final” warning. “The JIT also decided not to entertain his plea for delaying its proceedings till Monday”.

However, the source added that it was decided that another opportunity would be given to Riaz and he was asked to appear before the team today (Friday).

“Malik Riaz has also been warned that it was final opportunity failing to which ex-parte proceedings would be initiated against him,” the source added.

The joint investigation team had already obtained relevant record from various agencies regarding Arsalan Iftikhar case. The information was collected under the provisions of National Accountability Ordinance 1999. Notices under section 19 were also issued to different banks and financial institutions for obtaining information and record on transactions and accounts respecting the beneficiaries.

It might also examine the case from a money laundering perspective. According to Section 20, suspicious financial transactions fall within the domain of NAB and make it mandatory for the banks to report such transactions. The JIT has reasons to suspect that transactions subject matter of present inquiry involve an international dimension necessitating probe of bank accounts in the UAE, the UK and offshore banking systems.

It has also finalised a procedure for recording statements of persons privy to the facts and circumstances of the case who are either not residents of Pakistan or are foreign nationals.
SHC grants month-long protective bail to Malik Riaz:

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Thursday granted a month’s protective bail to real estate property tycoon Malik Riaz in a 1,400-kanal land corruption case. Earlier, an anti-Corruption court had issued arrest warrants for Riaz and his son, Ali in the case. A special anti-corruption court in Rawalpindi had issued warrants for the arrest of former Bahria Town owner on June 21 after his alleged involvement in the purchase of 1,401 kanal of land in Rawat using fake identities and forged documents.

See: http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2012/07/20/news/national/nab-gives-malik-riaz-last-warning/

10/07/2012: Another day and another accusation:

Property tycoon Malik Riaz and his son Ali Riaz again face arrest as the Rawalpindi bench of the Lahore High Court clarified on Monday that it never stopped any court from trying them.

A local judge had issued warrants of arrests for the two on June 26 for not appearing in his anti-corruption court but withdrew them after defence lawyers cited a restraining order passed in favour of the accused by the LHC’s division bench six months earlier.

On Monday, the bench, comprising Justice Chaudhry Mohammad Younis and Justice Ali Baqar Najfi, clarified that its December 26, 2011 order was specific to the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) and the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and did not restrain the anti-corruption court from trying Malik Riaz, his son, and five others for purchasing 1,401 kanals of land near Rawat in 2009, allegedly using fake identities and forged documents.

“There is no ambiguity in the order of the court of December 26. The proceedings before the ACE and NAB authorities were suspended and it does not find mention of suspension of proceedings before any court of law,” the bench declared.Prosecutor General Sadaqat Ali Khan of Punjab provoked heated arguments from the tycoon’s counsel Gohar Ali Khan when he told the bench that Malik Riaz prepared forged documents of 1,401 kanals of land of widows, orphans and dead persons. But to dodge the law, the beneficiary of the fraud lodged a fake FIR with Islamabad police in which he mentioned that some fake people had sold that land to the land developer Bahria Town, the prosecutor said.

Last year, the matter reached the Supreme Court which ordered the ACE to probe into the matter, he said. The ACE in its inquiry found Malik Riaz, his son, Bahria Town employees as well as some revenue officials of the government of Punjab guilty and in October 2011, ACE obtained their arrest warrants from anti-corruption court.

According to the Punjab prosecutor the property tycoon then requested Punjab Governor Sardar Latif Khan Khosa to quash the inquiry of ACE Punjab who obliged but the Punjab government did not accept governor’s order.The tycoon then challenged the ACE proceedings in the LHC but when the court summoned him in person, he, instead of appearing in the court, withdrew the petition from LHC and filed another petition in the Supreme Court where his case was also dismissed on November 14, 2011, the Punjab prosecutor said.In the meantime, the tycoon involved the NAB into the controversy and under his influence NAB chairman, Admiral (retired) Fasih Bokhari, on November 21 issued a letter for the transfer of the land fraud case from ACE to NAB in order to rescue Bahria Town, the prosecutor alleged.

He claimed Malik Riaz was confident of his exoneration through friendly prosecution of NAB because a daughter of NAB chairman at that time was working in Bahria Town.

For this reason, the prosecutor said, the ACE filed a petition against the transfer of the land fraud case to NAB and the LHC issued the restraining order in this regard. He argued that the counsels of Malik Riaz misled the anti-corruption court by misinterpreting the LHC bench’s order which led it to withdrawal the arrest warrants of the tycoon, his son and their other accomplices.

Malik Riaz’s counsel Gohar Ali Khan, however, argued that after the restraining order the anti-corruption court could not proceed with the case. He requested the court to adjourn the matter as the senior counsel of Malik Riaz, barrister Aitzaz Ahsan was on general adjournment till August 10.

The bench is likely to resume proceedings in the case after August 8.

See: http://dawn.com/2012/07/10/warrants-stare-at-tycoon-again-2/

03/07/2012 So today came the news that a long list of petitioners who had taken to the courts alleging that Bahria Town had forcibly and illegally taken over their land, was being heard by the Supreme Court. What we have is a long list of petitioners. However, by now, Malik Riaz seems to have become old news, with little concern for accountability or tackling corruption.

A special Supreme Court bench, created to hear land grabbing charges against the Bahria Town real estate firm, found itself facing the daunting task of recovering about 1,694 kanals around Rawalpindi when it opened proceedings in 36 cases here on Monday.

It is so despite the fact that the court had disposed of some 57 similar cases in the past before Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry withdrew from the cases involving the firm associated with real estate tycoon Malik Riaz.

On Monday the bench, comprising Justice Jawaad S. Khawaja and Justice Khilji Arif Hussain, streamlined the 36 cases so that they could move ahead in a systematic way. One after the other the complainants appeared, with their counsel, before the bench to briefly state their grievance against the mega builder.

One of them, Muhammad Naseer, a resident of picturesque rural village of Salkhaiter in the foothills of Murree, some 15kms from the Rawal Dam, claimed that in 2006 the developer Bahria Town entered into an agreement to acquire 108 kanals and 17 marlas of land in the village but paid only Rs7 million while rest of the Rs80 million is still outstanding.

Similarly Fayyaz Alam, President of the Wapda Engineering Housing Society, alleged that 237 kanals and five marlas of their land, also in Salkhaiter, was forcibly taken by the Bahria Town without any agreement.

Javed Akhtar, also from Salkhaiter, alleged that Bahria Town took over his 659 kanals and 13 marlas without any agreement.

Another complainant Naseer Ahmed claimed that the developers acquired 150 kanals in 2006 in Moza Niazian near Sihala but paid only Rs2 million against an outstanding of over Rs80 million.

Mirza Fazal Naeem claimed that the developers forcibly uprooted precious trees from his ancestral cultivated land of 80 kanals in Mughal Khas, Rawalpindi, to build a road connecting Bahria Town’s Dodochar Kalan project with G.T. Road at Rawat.

Complainant Mohammad Hanif alleged that Bahria Town forced him to part with 138 kanals of his land in Morgah, Rawalpindi, by registering a case against him on September 21, 2007 and sending him behind bars.

A widow, Ameena Bibi, claimed that four kanals and 12 marlas of her land in Morgah are in the illegal possession of the Bahria Town for the last seven years.Similarly 309 kanals and 13 marlas in Model Town Humak, Rawat and Moza Niazian, all on the outskirts of Rawalpindi, were claimed to be in the illegal possession of Bahria Town.

The bench clubbed a set of six individual complainants, belonging to the Revenue Employees Cooperative Housing Society, with a direction to Advocate Ali Zafar representing Bahria Town to sort these matters out and inform the court on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, in its reply the Bahria Town challenged that these cases had any nexus with human rights and said the applicants had no proof of ownership of the lands in question.

The reply alleged that the complainants had tried to circumvent the law by directly coming to the Supreme Court when they should have filed civil cases in relevant courts. To support the point it cited Dr Arsalan Iftikhar case in which the Supreme Court referred the matter to the concerned court.

Bahria Town emphasised that the Supreme Court was not a trial court to decide civil disputes between private parties. It said no person could bring a private civil dispute of whatever nature directly to the apex court.

Neither the Supreme Court is an investigation agency nor a trial court, it argued. In case a criminal matter is brought before the apex court then it is for the appropriate investigating agency to probe it and for the prosecution to prosecute any accused in the appropriate trial court, the reply stated.

It said the applications “contain baseless, false and fabricated allegations against the Bahria Town and therefore needed factual inquiry through a competent forum, which is the civil court”.

The reply stated the Bahria Town is a well-respected organisation providing state-of-the-art housing facilities to millions of citizens throughout Pakistan, and has rightly earned respect as an institution and corporate entity.

See: http://dawn.com/2012/07/03/land-grabbing-cases-against-bahria-town-sc-bench-facing-a-big-task-2/

01/07/2012 We are unlikely to never find out whether the following is true or not, but just shows the extent to which the gutter property development occupies in Pakistan.

ISLAMABAD, June 30: It is said that all is fair in love and war. But to find out how vicious wars can be, the 16-year-old rivalry between the owner of Bahria Town (BT), Malik Riaz Hussain, and a private land developer, Dr Shafiqur Rehman, is illustrative.

The two have accused each other of murder and more. In the latest round, Malik Riaz has been accused of a mind boggling conspiracy which includes the murder of a retired military general to hide his ‘dirty’ deals.

But the story has to be traced to the beginning to make sense.According to Dr Rehman, his litigation with BT started in 1996 when Riaz, in connivance with the revenue officials of the government of Punjab, allegedly prepared fake documents for the ownership of 900 kanals that belonged to Rehman. This land was adjacent to Bahria Town phase I to VII near G.T. Road Rawalpindi.

A 12 years legal battle ensued which ended when a civil court of Rawalpindi in 2008 decided the matter in favour of Dr Rehman.

But his pleasure was limited for he was dragged into a murder case of Mohammad Fayyaz, a security guard, soon afterwards.

According to Dr Shafiq, Fayyaz was working for BT and after his murder on August 14, 2008 in a clash between the security staff of a private housing scheme, Eden Garden, with the security staff of DHA and BT security officials, Riaz decided to nominate his own rivals for the murder.

Riaz paid the guard’s wife Rs6 million in 2008 and asked her to keep silent; he later paid her another Rs20 million.

Rehman said the FIR of the case was registered on August 14, 2008 by BT’s security supervisor Shaukat Ali; the latter accused 13 employees of Eden Garden as well as 70 unknown people of murdering Fayyaz.

Rehman claimed that after one year of the murder of the security guard, Malik Riaz met him and suggested that he (Rehman) surrender his land. But when Rehman refused, Riaz involved him in Fayyaz’s murder case in September 2008 by identifying him as one of the 70 unknown people who murdered Fayyaz. The identification was made by Shaukat Ali.

According to Shafiq, Riaz had 11 other land owners accused of the murder as well and then purchased their land at cheaper rates.

Shafiq said he was acquitted in 2009 but Riaz published advertisements in the newspapers in which the family of Fayyaz claimed they felt threatened because he had been released. “Malik Riaz wanted the Chief Justice to take suo motu action on the ads,” he added.

The Supreme Court did take notice and Shafiq and other parties concerned were summoned. The case is still pending in the SC.

But this is not the tale of one man’s accusations.Shafiq too has turned to the legal and judicial system.On May 30, 2012, he filed an application in the Supreme Court requesting it to take suo motu action against Malik Riaz.

In his application he has accused the tycoon of being behind the death of Lt-Gen Imtiaz Hussain, the former managing director Army Welfare Trust (AWT), Dr Mansur Janjua, a former student of military college Jhelum and a friend of Gen Imtiaz; and Babar Ali Khan, the manager Askari Bank DHA branch who was killed during the drag car race organised by Bahria Town on December 9, 2010.The application weaves a tale of a conspiracy that is as complicated as a mystery thriller.

Gen Imtiaz, the newspapers had reported, committed suicide in the last week of May. His family had ruled out foul play and said that the death was the result of a suicide. But according to the application, Gen Imtiaz was neither depressed nor did he ever consult any specialist for such an ailment.The application said Gen Imtiaz procured huge loans from Askari Commercial Bank, an integral part of AWT for DHA Islamabad, on the request of BT and was facilitating transactions between the DHA and BT allegedly through Babar Ali Khan.

The application alleges that the benefactors of such land deals need to blame some one because the DHA reportedly is not in a position to return the loans to the bank. Therefore, the application states, they decided to make Gen Imtiaz and Khan the scapegoats and eliminate them.

The application says Gen Imtiaz was murdered by Malik Riaz. It said Gen Imtiaz as the Adjutant General (AG) Army and managing director Army Welfare Trust (AWT) extended undue favours to Riaz in exchange for huge kickbacks.In addition, it is alleged that the joint venture of DHA Valley signed between DHA, BT and Habib Rafiq Limited on August 16, 2008 was one-sided and that Gen Imtiaz, the then vice chairman of DHA, did not safeguard the interest of his organisation.

According to the application Dr Janjua’s murder was linked to a different land deal.

The application says that Janjua had planned a housing scheme in Sihala but Imtiaz alias Taji Khokhar, the front man of Malik Riaz, handed over the required land to another party.

“Because of Mansur’s (Janjua) close association with Chief of Army Staff Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, Taji Khokhar and his master Malik Riaz were feeling threatened, therefore, they closed the chapter of his life,” the application adds.The application also predicted that DHA officials based in Islamabad, who had directly or indirectly engaged or benefited BT, may die.

When asked if he had filed the application only to avenge his own treatment at the hands of Riaz, Dr Shafiq said that, “I am neither taking revenge nor taking advantage of the situation. In fact, during 2010 I twice wrote to the COAS and requested him to probe the nexus of Gen Imtiaz with Malik Riaz as their actions damaged the repute of the army in general and the DHA in particular.”

Qaisar Qadeer Qureshi, BT’s legal adviser, said an application filed by a party because of old enmity had no legal value; he added that those who had raised the allegation would have to prove them in court.

He said the application lacked credibility and is aimed to distract the court from the murder case of the security guard. “When we receive the notices, then after studying the nature of the allegations and examining the evidence placed on the court record we will file our reply.”

See: http://dawn.com/2012/07/01/another-application-against-property-tycoon-bigwigs-animosity-saga-that-allegedly-spills-blood-2/

27/06/2012: So not only has Malik Riaz not been arrested yet as per court orders (see below), he now has Islamabad Police holding flag marches within Bahria Town, allegedly to ward of any attempt of arrest by Rawalpindi police.

In what looked to be a move to protect property tycoon Malik Riaz Hussain from being arrested by the Rawalpindi police in a land fraud case, the capital police held a flag march in Bahria Town, sources told Dawn on Tuesday. A senior police officer said, “This flag march held on Saturday was followed by another on Sunday.”

Replying to a question about the reason behind holding the march in the housing society, he said it was conducted due to a ‘sensitive movement’ in the area. However, he was reluctant to disclose the details. The sources said the flag march was held in each and every street of all the eight phases of Bahria Town by the capital’s rural zone police. The eight phases spread in the limits of Sihala, Rawat and Morgah police of Rawalpindi district. However, the capital police accompanied by security staff and vehicles of Bahria Town also trespassed into the limits of Rawalpindi and moved around in the jurisdictions of Rawat and Morgah police. The flag march was held under the supervision of a superintendent who had the strength of over 50 policemen, including three DSPs and six station house officers of the rural zone comprising Sihala, Loi Bher, Koral, Shahzad Town, Nilor and Banigala. Personnel of Anti-Terrorism Squad also accompanied the police. A police officer, when contacted, said the flag march was held in response to information that the Rawalpindi police had moved to Bahria Town Phase-VIII, Morgah, to conduct a raid for the arrest of Malik Riaz. A few days back when a 22-member police and anti-corruption establishment team from Rawalpindi reached the Aabpara police station to arrest the property tycoon from his G-6/3 house, they were detained and then escorted out of the city. It may be mentioned that usually a flag march is held by law enforcement agencies, paramilitary and military personnel, in an orderly fashion to infuse a sense of security among the people, usually to show their preparedness before public gatherings on religious and national events.

See: http://dawn.com/2012/06/27/capital-police-hold-flag-march-in-bahria-town/

23/06/2012 So if you were getting excited on the news that arrest warrants for Malik Riaz and Ali Riaz had been issued (once again), don't hold your breath.

June 22: The capital police on Friday provided security to property tycoon Malik Riaz Hussain apparently to counter any move by the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) Rawalpindi to arrest him in a land fraud case, sources told Dawn.

The police security team included a superintendent, a deputy superintendent, an inspector, six personnel of the Anti-Terrorism Squad and a team of 20 policemen from a police station besides a reserve of 20 other personnel and their in-charge, the sources added.
On Thursday, an Anti-Corruption Court in Rawalpindi issued warrants for the arrest of Malik Riaz, his son Ali Riaz and five other persons for failing to appear before the court in a case relating to the alleged purchase of 1,401 kanals on fake identities and forged documents at Rawat in 2009.

The sources said that under the law, before arresting the property tycoon the Pindi police or the ACE personnel have to take permission from the Aabpara police as Mr Riaz lived in its jurisdiction at G-6/3. In case, they pick him up without informing the Islamabad police, the latter can take action against them. However, the sources also said Malik Riaz was currently not living at his G-6/3 residence and had taken shelter somewhere in the red zone.
The sources said the capital police chief along with some other police officers also visited the house of Malik Riaz on Friday and remained there for over half an hour. However, a police officer on condition of anonymity said they had visited some sensitive installations in a street of G-6/3, which besides Malik Riaz’s residence also housed the Norwegian embassy and offices of the European Union and Voice of America.

The police security was provided to the property tycoon despite the fact that the Supreme Court had recently sought a report from the IGP Islamabad for giving VIP protocol and police security to him.

The Islamabad police have been providing security and giving protocol to the property tycoon for long. On December 9, 2010, the police deployed a contingent of commandoes around his house to counter any raid by the Rawalpindi police to arrest Ali Riaz in connection with a car racing accident.

Meanwhile, after the issuance of warrants for the arrest of Malik Riaz and his son Ali Riaz in the land fraud case on Thursday, the ACE made two attempts to arrest them. One of the ACE teams, led by Inspector Tanveer Ahmed, planned a swoop on Malik Riaz outside the Supreme Court building on Thursday.

“Malik Riaz had left the venue moments before the arrival of the ACE team,” a source close to the investigation said and added: “Ali Riaz, the chief executive of Bahri Town, has already left the country.”

Another raid by the ACE team was carried out at Rawat to capture four of the accused nominated in the land fraud case but it also proved unproductive.

The source said as many as 24 persons, including Malik Riaz, his son and two employees of Bahria Town – land supervisor Akhtar Saeed and Malik Riaz’s gunman Mohammad Iqbal – had been identified by the ACE as the prime accused in two land fraud cases.
The ACE has already arrested eight of the accused, including two employees of Bahria Town.
Malik Asad adds: In another shock to the property tycoon, lawyers in the capital city have challenged in Islamabad HighCourt (IHC) the presidential pardon granted to a guard of Malik Riaz convicted in a terrorism/murder case. In another case, the court stopped development of Bahria Enclave.

The act of pardoning the terrorism convict by President Asif Ali Zardari was challenged through a petition filed by advocates Chaudhry Mohammad Naeem Ali and Umar Khayam through their counsel Chaudhry Mohammad Ashraf.

The petition said the presidential pardon to Mohammad Basharat, a gunman of the property tycoon, was illegal. He was charged under anti-terrorism act for murdering a citizen on January 9, 2010.

The petitioners contended that the president had no authority to pardon a terrorism convict. The petition would be fixed before an IHC bench on Monday.

In another case, Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui of the court restrained the property tycoon from developing Bahria Enclave on a piece of land allegedly grabbed by him, his son and the management of Bahria Town.

The court passed the restraining orders on a civil suit filed by Farzana Shaheen and her two sisters who sold their 1,219 kanal inherited land to the tycoon in 2005 but are still waiting for the payment.

See: http://dawn.com/2012/06/23/arrest-warrants-malik-riaz-gets-police-protection-in-capital/

22/06/2012 Arrest warrants issued, though no arrests made thus far (23.06.2012).

RAWALPINDI, June 21: Property tycoon Malik Riaz witnessed another bad day on Thursday as he lost two cases in Lahore High Court (LHC) that was followed by a local court issuing his arrest warrants in land fraud case.

The first shock for the real estate tycoon came when Justice Chaudhry Shahid Saeed of the LHC Rawalpindi bench declared the merger of 2,882 kanals land of Revenue Employees Cooperative Housing Society (RECHS) with Bahria Town (BT) illegal.

Justice Saeed also directed Bahria Town to provide plots of their choice to the petitioners within two months or pay the market price of their plots now occupied by residents of Askari-XIV developed by Defence Housing Authority DHA after getting the RECHS land from BT.

Former Rawalpindi district coordinator Hamid Ali Khan was arbitrator in the agreement signed between Col (retired) Abdullah Siddiqui, the then assistant director National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and Malik Riaz Hussain chief executive of BT.

The court declared the February 17, 2005 agreement signed between RECHS and BT as null and void and directed anti-corruption establishment (ACE) to initiate action against those government officials involved in unlawful deal.
It is to mention here that summary for approval of the merger of housing society for government officials was signed by then chief minister Punjab Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi and it was submitted by then chief secretary Kamran Rasool whereas it was signed by then secretary cooperative societies Farkhanda Waseem Afzal. The land was transferred through different mutations in the name of Bahria Town.

The land, however, was further sold by the private housing society to the DHA in 2006 which developed Askari XIV on it falling in the areas of Morgah and Jarahi. Assistant Advocate General (AAG) Rashid Hafeez the counsel for Punjab government opposed the merger calling it unlawful.

Later, while hearing 20 petitions of affectees of DHA phase II extension Justice Saeed set aside the acquisition of land in the areas of Kahuta, Kallar Syedan and Rawalpindi tehsil by Punjab government in 2006 for Army Welfare Housing Society later DHA.

The court declared the acquisition of some 9,996 kanals for DHA phase II extension in different villages including Daducha and others as unlawful because there was no public purpose involved in obtaining the land saying the land was only being obtained for DHA that is a housing scheme eyeing only on profit.
The then Punjab government also issued emergency orders for land acquisition depriving the land owner of their rights to raise objections.

According to AAG Hafeez, the land was acquired by the DHA which engaged Bahria Town for its development.

Meanwhile an anticorruption court of Rawalpindi issued fresh arrest warrants of Malik Riaz, his son Ali Riaz and five others for failing to appear before the court in a case of allegedly purchasing 1,401 kanals land in Rawat area in 2009 on fake identities and forged documents. Special Judge Anti-Corruption Chaudhry Ameer Mohammad Khan issued the arrest warrants after both the accused did not appear in the court to face the trial in the case. The court adjourned the hearing till June 25.

According to Public Prosecutor Khawaja Sohail, earlier in October 2011, the same court had issued arrest warrants for tycoon and his associates on the FIR no. 29 of 2009 on the complaint of private persons but the recent warrants have been issued in another FIR of the same case registered by ACE on the basis of source report.

See: http://dawn.com/2012/06/22/warrants-follow-more-cases-against-malik-riaz/

20/06/2012: Another day and another scam comes to light. Actually, the scam has been in the news before, just no one bothered to take it seriously. And sadly, that remains the case. So the case here is essentially, Malik Riaz bought out a housing scheme for provincial government workers. The agreement was signed by the said schemes administrator who the petitioners claim had no legal authority to sign the agreement in the first place. The administrator, surprise surprise, a Retd Colonel was also employed at NAB at the same time. Later, Malik Riaz sold the land to DHA Islamabad. The original landholders are now seeking compensation, but now that the land is in the hands of DHA, there is little chance they will see anything. After all, DHA is a national asset. Read:

Justice Chaudhry Shahid Saeed of the Lahore High Court (LHC) Rawalpindi bench on Tuesday reserved his verdict in petitions challenging the merger of Revenue Employees Cooperative Housing Society (RECHS) Rawalpindi with Bahria Town.

The merger has allegedly deprived the members of the employees housing society of developed plots.

The petitioners included serving and retired officials of the provincial government.
Under the agreement, the BT took over the society’s 2,880 kanals developed land in 2005 and promised to deliver the possession to 2,000 members of RECHS that was initiated in 1988 and land was purchased in revenue estates of Morgah and Jirahi in Rawalpindi.

The Bharia Town, in the name of development accumulated Rs300,000 per kanal from members of the housing society but only delivered possession of plots to 257 members.Later in 2006, the administration of Bharia Town transferred the land to Defence Housing Authority (DHA) that developed Askari-XIV housing society for serving and retired army men.

It was in March this year that Supreme Court directed the LHC to decide cases against Bahria Town within two month after setting up a special bench.

Challenging the amalgamation of the society with a private company, Riazud Din Ahmed and other petitioners claimed the agreement was signed on behalf of RECHS by its administrator who was appointed in violation of rules.

Raja Mohammad Bashir, the counsel for the petitioners, on Tuesday maintained that Colonel (retired) Abdullah Siddiqi, acting as administrator of the society, signed the controversial deal with chief executive of BT Malik Riaz Hussain in February 2005, when the
administrator had no legal standing after his period of appointment was over.
He argued before the court that the administrator was at the same time an assistant director with National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Rawalpindi and he was illegally appointed as administrator when an elected body was present for the revenue society but the body was not notified by registrar cooperative societies.

The members of the housing society maintained that even the appointment of the administrator was for a short period and he was not authorised to decide future of the society let alone transfer its land through mutation to a private company.

The petitioners in written applications maintained that under the law no agreement could be signed between a welfare society and a private limited company.

They said after the land was further transferred to DHA by the BT the petitioners were deprived of their plots and the money they had paid for their land.

On the other hand, Barrister Gohar Ali Khan representing the BT maintained before the court that the merger was made involving the provincial government.

The agreement was approved by the then chief minister of Punjab, and the then District Coordination Officer was arbitrator in the proceedings he said adding BT had compensated all who were allotted plots except 26.

He said many were given plots at original land, other were offered price of their plots amounting to Rs1.6 million and remaining were offered developed plots in Phase-IX of Bahria Town.

From: http://dawn.com/2012/06/20/judgment-reserved-in-bahria-town-merger-case/

19/06/2012: Just a recent addition to this sorry saga. Obviously this travesty of justice is overlooked and all the "judiciary is supreme" rhetoric shed any light on them.

Some 250 families have appealed to the Chief Justice of Pakistan to ensure rapid action on the suo motu case relating to their lands “occupied” by Bahria Town in Salkhtar area in Murree tehsil for its Golf City project. Their representatives told a press conference here on Monday that the Rawalpindi bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC) had not heard their case for almost a year, while a judicial inquiry ordered by Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry after taking suo motu notice had upheld their complaints. Although illegal encroachments and transfers have been proved in various courts but political personalities and Punjab Government were hesitating to take action against the influential developer, they said. “Malik Riaz occupied over 617 kanals of my land while I was away in China for liver transplant in 2005,” said Salkhtar political figure Mohammad Irfan Abbasi speaking for the “affected” people. Police refused to register FIR against the property tycoon, he said.However, things moved after three years when the chief justice took notice and instructed Session Judge Islamabad Mazhar Minhas to conduct an inquiry. “Justice Minhas’ report proved that the land belonged to me but lawyers of Bahria Town submitted that the case was under trial in the Lahore High Court, due to which the Supreme Court instructed to wait for the high court’s decision. But the case has not been heard for 11 months now,” he said. “Land bearing Khasra numbers 448/430 belongs to me but Malik Riaz has been constructing a hotel on it,” he said. Javed Akhtar, principal of a school in Salkhtar, said Malik Riaz occupied the land of his forefathers. “There are 18 graveyards, three schools, three mosques and 250 houses in Salkhtar but now armed persons of Malik Riaz have started blocking the way to the village as they claim the land through which the access road passes. “We challenged 42 transfers of land in favour of Malik Riaz in the civil court and Rawalpindi civil judge Hamid Hussain declared them fake and tempered. Still we could not repossess our land,” he said. Javed Akhtar said Malik Riaz claims that out of 3,967 kanals of land in the area, he owns 3,333 kanals. “He transferred 270 kanals to the children of former prime minister Ch Shujaat and former Punjab chief minister Pervaiz Elahi to secure his claim,” he alleged.

According to Mr Akhtar, on April 16, 2012, a civil judge cancelled ownership of Malik Riaz over 3,270 kanals out of the 3,333 kanals but construction was going on in the cancelled area.

Lambardar Ikhlaq Hussain Abbasi, a traditional land record keeper of the area, said that the Supreme Court had ruled on July 31, 2009 that housing societies can not be constructed in Murree but Bahria Town continued to develop its Golf City that threatens to pollute Rawal Dam located just 15 kilometres from Salkhtar. An aged woman, Zulekha Bibi, alleged that Malik Riaz got her 36 kanals illegally transferred to Bahria Town without paying her a single rupee.Public relations officer of Bahria Town, Ms Nida, would not comment on the claims made at the press conference but insisted to Dawn that “Bahria Town has never done anything against the rules. Legal requirements must have been met in acquiring the land for Golf City and the construction there on”.

From: http://dawn.com/2012/06/19/bahria-town-golf-city-victims-seek-quick-justice/

Original Post:

So you think the writ of the state is being challenged?

You dont have to go far. Just venture down the Islamabad highway and the G.T. Road as you exit the Rawalpindi cantonment and private actors have already ceded from the state. The powers that be, Malik Riaz, the military through DHA, HRL and land grabbers have become a powerful cartel that has virtually surrounded the twin cities from one side and continue to expand. Supposedly all of this is under the guise of national development, enterprise, Western style living, thanking ex-Army officers for their services and making world class golf courses.

For a detailed analysis of how the military takes control of vast swaths of land see, Ayesha Siddiqa's, The New Land Barons? http://www.newslinemagazine.com/2006/07/the-new-land-barons/

Below I am reproducing a forward that was sent by Colonel (Retd) M Tariq Kamal, former Director Engineering DHA Islamabad, to the Pak Media mailing list.

========================================================================

Lt. Col. (Retd) M Tariq Kamal. Former Director Engineering DHA Islamabad,

Cell: 0300-8542971. Res: 051-5152157. Address: 10-C, Tariq Lane, Tulsa Raod, Lalazar, Rawalpindi.

DHA, Bahria Town deprive masses of Rs 62 billion

Forty thousand soldiers, one hundred ten thousand civilians lost savings

Authorities playing role of silent spectator: ex- director DHA

Islamabad: (April 25) Defence Housing Authority Islamabad (DHAI) and Bahria Town have deprived 150 thousand people of their hard-earned Rs 62 billion, a former military officer said.
All the concerned authorities have decided to ignore this blatant breach of public trust, he said.Colonel (Retd) M Tariq Kamal, former Director Engineering DHAI said in a statement on Wednesday that DHAI has been receiving money in the name of allotment of plots in DHA Phase I Extension, DHA Phase II Extension and DHA Valley since a decade but what masses get in return is assurances and hollow promises.
Those who deposited money for plots considering it purely DHAI projects were deliberately kept in dark about the agreements between that DHAI and Bahria Town regarding land development.
Similarly, few would know that following the controversial agreements, DHAI silently transferred all the funds raised from public amounting to Rs 62 billion to the account of Bahria Town CEO Malik Riaz.Those who got cheated include 110 thousand civilians, 41 thousand serving and retired military officers, jawans and families of martyrs. Total land in question is 1,65,000 kanal, he informed.Elaborating, he said that few years back DHAI and Bahria Town chief Malik Riaz inked controversial agreements according to which the later was entrusted to develop all the 1, 75,000 kanal land owned by DHAI.
Malik Riaz started development activity on 10,000 kanals after pursuance by DHAI authorities. As the development process kicked off, the DHAI bosses transferred Rs 62 billion into the account of Malik Riaz without any guarantee and against the advice of DHAI legal advisors Ahmer Bilal Soofi & Co.
Those DHAI employees who objected to the illegal steps were sacked immediately.
After some time, Mr. Riaz stopped development process and started using the money of DHAI members to fulfil his personal ambitions, he alleged.
He informed that according to the agreements DHAI is unable to take any decision or action while Mr. Riaz continues to delay development leaving millions of people worried and insecure.
Lt Col. (R) Tariq said that reasons for the unusual favour are still not known but it merits an investigation to ascertain as to why top officials misused authority and compromised DHAI reputation to benefit a property tycoon widely known for land grabbing.
Similarly, the applicants were deliberately kept unaware about the partnership of DHAI with Malik Riaz in the business otherwise the response of masses could have been different.
He said that Mr Riaz is not honouring agreements thus damaging DHAI reputation and causing a huge financial loss. Yet, DHAI administration’s indifference is bewildering and needs investigation.Lt Col. Tariq who is a member of DHAI as well as an affectee said that according to Clause 23 of Gazette Notification Ordinance No LIII, 2009, all the serving or retired army officers serving in DHA would be considered public servants (civilians).
However, the Central and Provincial Governments, NAB, FIA and police etc. would not take any concrete action against all those who have violated all laws and procedures to deprive 150 thousand families of their homes.
He said that the demands of overseas Pakistanis and findings of Transparency International have also fallen upon deaf years.

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One report after another

Now there is no way of definitively establishing whether this is all true or not. But it does tie in with alot of rumours and news reports regarding DHAI and Malik Riaz over the last few years.

One of which of course was the revelation that DHAI had defaulted on its debt to Askari Bank and the amounts were large enough to threaten Askari Bank's continued operation.

Back in 2010 an editorial in the DAWN noted that:

One of these banks, the Askari Commercial Bank, like the DHA, is an arm of the military`s Army Welfare Trust. Unable to pay up, the Islamabad DHA is seeking not only a two-year moratorium on payment of mark-up and the principal loan amount, but also a waiver of the interest rate. Both requests, say banking experts, go against the rules of the State Bank of Pakistan.

Malik Riaz had allegedly helped tide DHAI over and in exchange largely taken over chunks of DHAI. Bahria Town sales started to actively sell and market DHA property. DHAI F Sector was developed on what was Bahria Town, but under the DHAI brand. Same case with the DHA overseas block where Bahria Town have actively been developing it under its own brand, yet not much has actually been constructed.

Bahria Town and DHA have both been accused of land grabbing across the Islamabad/Rawalpindi jurisdictions. Most recently the DAWN published the following reports:

Police put on notice in land grabbing case http://dawn.com/2012/04/22/police-put-on-notice-in-land-grabbing-case-2/

Book the tycoon and son, court orders http://dawn.com/2012/04/24/book-the-tycoon-and-son-court-orders/

Things have been going from bad to worse when it comes to suburban property development around the twin cities. Poorly planned and managed housing societies have sprung up in former agricultural and rural areas. Local communities have been broken and displaced, often by force.

Malik Riaz's name keeps on popping up over the past decade or so for his alleged involvement in various land grabs. This perhaps makes DHAI's involvement with him even more short-sighted. How is it that an organization, the military, that claims that it excels at administration and honesty, is involved with such an individual?

Allegations against Mr Riaz include not depositing employee income tax deductions with the FBR, harassing police personnel, kidnapping a mobile NADRA team and having Bahria Town workers change their CNIC addresses to influence local elections and selling land in the soan river.

Questions, questions and more questions

The military at the very least should a) answer the allegations that it has not compensated villagers who held land in what is now DHA Phase II and DHA Phase II Extension/Overseas block etc b) explain how DHAI's debt is being repaid c) given that the DHAI Ordinance has not been passed by the National Assembly, in whose name and under what legal authority is it enforcing civic laws in its jurisdiction and sharing those rights and privileges with other actors and d) How land allotted as a gunnery range is now being converted and marketed as DHAI Phase 3.

Given that Malik Riaz and the DHAI are based in Rawalpindi and Islamabad they avoid the glare of the Karachi based media. Given the amount of advertising revenue that both DHA and BT generate for newspapers and television stations its hardly surprising that they dont come down hard on them.

Perhaps more importantly organizations such as DHA and BT have become part and parcel of middle and upper class aspirations. Its become the fashionable thing to do to invest in and live in such areas and highlight how you are enjoying "Western styled amenities" in Pakistan.

Rise of the urban landlords

Malik Riaz and his ilk are what I like to describe our Urban Landlords. They have not only become wealthy by monopolizing large tracts of property themselves. They have been successful to tie in a much larger populations welfare within their own success. After all, who is going to take on people such as him if they are afraid that their investments in "files" and "plots" may go down the toilet.

So not only are they wealthy, they are helping make other people wealthy as well. Further, they push people out and displace farmers from agricultural land forcing them to give up their traditional lifestyles and local economies for a harsh, labour intensive urban economy. Its urbanisation, but on Malik Riaz's and HRL's terms.

Now its also possible that Bahria Town may be completely above board. The DHA has done nothing wrong, the media is out to get them and jealous competitors are defaming them. If so, why don't they do themselves a favour and act with greater transparency and accountability rather than the DG ISPR making statements such as, the military will deal with its property in the national interest!

What the Colonel has highlighted above will probably not receive much attention. If the benchmark of corruption that is used to measure politicians was applied here, we would find GHQ-DHA involved in massive corruption. However, they can always fall back on jingoism and nationalism to justify their actions. What is despicable is that people like Malik Riaz who have co-opted the DHA brand and by extension the military as a major stakeholder, is free riding on the Army's name.

Apparently he is supposed to be a role model that I am told young Pakistani entrepreneurs should emulate!

UPDATE:

When advertisements like those above pop up in newspapers, one does have to question whether hiring ex-military, ex-SC judges is nothing more than capturing both expertise and influence. There is nothing wrong with hiring ex-government officials, but there is a problem if these officials then use their personal influence, gathered through service to push Malik Riaz's own agenda. This has been illustrated in several cases where the head of Bahria Town security, a retired colonel has been involved in altercations with Rawalpindi Police and then has later evaded prosecution because the ranking police official comments: "how are we going to put a retd Colonel behind bars?"

Or for example the following:

Businesses benefited from the World Cup frenzy last week but none like a building industry giant that allegedly used it to grab land defying court orders and civil rights actions.People of Mauza Sal Kether in the foothills of Murree claim that the Mohali clash was two days away when massive blasts shook their village. It turned out that the management of Bahria Town was blasting rocks in disputed land for its controversial and long contested Golf City scheme........

“First they tried to intimidate us by using big names like that of Maj Gen (retired) Shaukat Sultan who is some official in the project, then they tried to forcibly acquire 659 acres of our land which also includes shamlat,” he claimed........

In other cases, Police officials who came to the aid of villagers fighting off land grabbers found them self posted out or demoted from their positions.

In another instance:

Some years back, a former SHO of Bhara Kahu was booked in an attempted murder case over a dispute involving a 175-kanal land at Phulgran. Later, the investigations found that the complainant – property dealer Safiullah Abbasi – had made self-inflicted wounds to implicate the SHO in the case after failing to grab a piece of land belonging to an air force officer.

Below are some quotes from some articles related to Malik Riaz, I mean he has been making a mockery of the law for such a long time, that its shocking that only now he is being dragged before the Supreme Court. Though don't hold your breadth. Its more than likely that he will get away scot free. Dishing around a few plots here and there will make you worthy of unaccountable doucheness.

After his son was threatened with arrest by Punjab Police, no one less than the President of the country went to apologize in person.

Setting aside the official and security protocol, President Asif Ali Zardari paid a visit to the house of property tycoon Malik Riaz Hussain on Monday night.

Ch Nisar who is no fan of Malik Riaz didn't mince any words saying:

In his remarks prior to a meeting of the Public Accounts Committee of the National Assembly here at the Parliament House, Mr Nisar said: “It is a matter of record that over the last couple of decades these people have been found involved in all kinds of criminal activities, ranging from forceful occupation of land to murders committed in broad daylight.” Therefore, in case the Defence Housing Authority, Islamabad, entered into a partnership with the aforesaid business the armed forces of the country would get a bad name, said the head of the PAC.
Mr Nisar said the Bahria Town had complete support of the PPP government which was quite keen to get the DHA bill passed by the National Assembly, under whose faÃ§ade the Bahria Town would expand its business. Behind the scenes, he said, both DHA and Bahria Town were planning a joint housing project in the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad.

What is even more surprising is the fact that the Chief Justice has already commented on Malik Riaz, in relation to the now infamous Rehmani Hajj, which was bankrolled by Malik Riaz. The article notes:

The term ‘Rehmani Haj’ because of which the PIA had to pay a penalty of Rs9 million to the Saudi authorities and the role of Bahria Town chairman Malik Riaz also came up when the religious affairs secretary claimed that those who had performed Haj as guests of the interior minister were financed by the Bahria Town.The secretary, however, denied that PIA had to bear the brunt of the Rehmani Haj as compensation.“If Riaz Malik is so rich then why is he not paying taxes?” asked the chief justice. He recalled that the apex court was seized with a number of cases against him.

So yes, if all these cases and tax dodging was well known, how come the CJ was silent for so long?

Perhaps the biggest scandal, which recieved no coverage was the case of Malik Riaz forcing all of Bahria Town's employees to change their permanent addresses and get new CNIC's, to allegedly influence the upcoming elections in favour of his PML-Q ally:

During the proceedings on Friday, Mohammad Hashmi, one of the complainants, told the court that Malik Riaz had ordered his 20,000 workers to get their new identity cards having address of Bahria Town“ a move that negates the fundamental right of the voters of NA-52. He was of the view that around 4,100 identity cards have been issued to workers of the housing society thus far.

And it's not as if cases have not popped up in the SC before, for example:

The revelations have been made in the report of a judicial inquiry conducted by District and Sessions Judge Mazhar Hussain Minhas and submitted to the Supreme Court of Pakistan. It puts on record scenes of land grabbing seen only in Indian films. It exposes cold-blooded operations conducted by Bahria Town, Defence Housing Authority and Habib Rafique to deprive hundreds of people and the state of valuable land, in connivance with police, revenue authorities and even elements in the lower judiciary.

Coming back to taxes, in December last year, the Senate had decided to investigate the tax paid by Malik Riaz and Bahria Town. What is interesting here is the fact that the law is cited that says that tax information cannot be divulged publicly. If that is the case, then why are various political parties publishing their opponents tax receipts?

Senator Zahid Khan of the ANP had raised the question about taxes paid by the country’s largest real estate developer in the past three years.
The minister cited section 216 of the Income Tax Ordinance 2001, read with Clause (XV) of Rule 47 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business, 1988 which debars disclosure “in relation to any matter in matter of which there is a constitutional or statutory obligation not to disclose information”.

Further, the relationship between DHA and Malik Riaz goes back a long time. In 2007 it was reported:

The Rawalpindi Bench of the Lahore High Court on Friday summoned the head of Behria Town and officials of the Defence Housing Authority and the Punjab Cooperative Housing Department to answer charges of land fraud filed by a housing society.
Justice Abdul Shakoor Paracha of the Lahore High Court issued the summons after taking up the petition filed by secretary of the Revenue Department Employees Cooperative Housing Society, Mian Riazuddin, along with nine members of the society, accusing the respondents of occupying the society’s land fraudulently.

DAWN's monopoly:

Apart from the content of the above articles, what is also interesting is the fact that DAWN has been by far most prominent in covering the affairs of Malik Riaz and Bahria Town. Other papers have snippets here and there but thats about it. Though, no one can doubt that Bahria Town/DHA are major advertisers and no media house is likely to make the angry.

The following have some more details:

Reporter - Land Mafia, collusion with power players Part 1

Reporter - Land Mafia, collusion with power players Part 2

Reporter - Land Mafia, collusion with power players Part 3

Reporter - Land Mafia, collusion with power players Part 4

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Wednesday 25 April 2012