In Malik Riaz's pocket. Et tu, PTI?
Shahzad Akbar and Imran Khan were doing the bidding for Malik Riaz
Like all Bahria Town posts, this one is long. Your mailbox provider such as Gmail may truncate it. You can read it in full on the website by clicking the headline above.
Anatomy of Corruption
The below timeline is the executive summary of the entire post.
May 2018 - March 2019: SC judgment of penalizing Bahria Town to Bahria Town finally accepting the judgment.
Feb 2017 - Dec 2019: Funds in a single account maintained in the UK increase from GBP 56M to GBP 138M and NCA notes “I consider the timing of this significant increase of cash reserves held in the UK as highly suspicious and suggestive of attempts to conceal the proceeds of criminal conduct from the Government of Pakistan,…”. How this money left Pakistan was something Shahzad Akbar not interested in following.
Dec 2, 2019: NCA announces the GBP 190M recovery.
Federal government isn’t celebrating this historical haul of GBP 190M.
Dec 3, 2019: Shahzad Akbar most likely with the approval of Imran Khan presents a confidential sealed note to the cabinet as a matter of national security, which the cabinet approved without seeing it.
The note allows the money recovered from Malik Riaz in the UK to be given back to Malik Riaz in Pakistan for paying his Supreme Court penalty.
Dec 15, 2020: Bahria Town approaches Supreme Court for relaxation in payments for three years. Supreme Court rejects Bahria Town’s plea.
Mar 29, 2021: Trying a different tack, Bahria Town writes a letter to PM offering a lollipop of low-cost housing and seeking relaxation from Supreme Court (which was explicitly denied three months ago).
Apr 9, 2021: PM’s office writes a letter to AG asking them to approach the court for seeking relaxation as Bahria Town will be building 3000 low-cost units in Islamabad and 2000 in Karachi under PM’s Naya Pakistan Housing
May 2021: The matter is moved to the court, where it is mentioned that an MoU may be signed between NAPHDA and Bahria Town. The law ministry advises the federal government that while it seeks relaxation on behalf of Bahria Town, the final deadline by which the payment is to be made should not be extended.
January 2022: NAPHDA issues an eligibility letter (and makes it clear that the letter is not evidence of approval) and asks ABL to provide development financing to Bahria for building low-cost housing.
Shahzad Akbar as Malik Riaz’s agent
A historic recovery is made
The dubious role of Shahzad Akbar
Asked if the money would be given to the Supreme Court as claimed by Malik Riaz, Mr Akbar said “no comments”.
“It is not important how the money had been laundered, the important [thing] is that we have managed to get it recovered,” he said,
adding that it was the first case in the country’s history that the national wealth stashed abroad had been recovered.
Put a pin in the bold sentence above. I will come back to it later. For a person who is the accountability czar, Shahzad Akbar is not interested in how the money has been laundered. WEIRD.
All is quiet on the government front
A historic amount has been recovered, and we find out that the federal government isn’t interested in discussing it.
Recovery of £190m from Malik Riaz tops cabinet discussion - Newspaper - DAWN.COM
A source, who attended the meeting, told Dawn on condition of anonymity that the prime minister discussed the matter with some cabinet members when officials of Prime Minister Secretariat and other ministries had left the meeting hall.
The matter was being treated as a matter of national security in the cabinet, such that the cabinet wasn’t even told what was being approved by them. Only Shireen Mazari dared to ask, but I guess no response was provided.
Malik Riaz & the art of the deal - Pakistan - DAWN.COM
TOWARDS the end of 2019, something unusual happened at a federal cabinet meeting in Islamabad. Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Accountability Shahzad Akbar was allowed to present a ‘non-agenda item’; he had with him a sealed envelope that he said contained a non-disclosure agreement. It pertained to a multi-million pound settlement that the UK-based National Crime Agency (NCA) had recently arrived at with property tycoon Malik Riaz. According to a source present at the meeting, “[Human Rights Minister] Shireen Mazari objected, saying, ‘What approval are we giving when we don’t even know its contents?’ We were told that if it is opened there are implications for national security and the UK government also has reservations”.
What was approved in the cabinet meeting?
Cabinet approved the recommendation in para 10 which nobody saw and the note was sealed.
We still haven’t seen the note, but we can guess what the note said: that the money will be given to Bahria Town to adjust the penalty imposed by Supreme Court. LUDICROUS. You don’t give the money recovered from the accused back to him to pay off the fines. But this is how the accountability czar Shehzad Akbar rolled.
Shahzad Akbar issues a press release with the approval of Mali Riaz
Silence of the lambs - Newspaper - DAWN.COM
As the news broke and went viral on social media, to widespread applause from our PTI champs that the promise of the leader had finally borne its first fruit, a strange unease was sensed in the government. Their representatives, who are normally tripping over themselves to come on TV and discuss their accomplishments, were suddenly turning coy. Many anchors preferred to focus on other topics too. I saw three who were willing to probe the issue.
One had the government’s official spokesperson Firdous Ashiq Awan as his guest. He asked her why, after such a large recovery of ill-gotten gains from London, the government was so silent. She answered that Shahzad Akbar, the head of the prime minister’s own Asset Recovery Unit (ARU), would hold a press conference tomorrow (ie Wednesday) and provide all details, in addition to the role played by the government and “what compulsions of ours are connected with this affair”.
Sheikh Rashid, supposedly the railway minister but otherwise a full-time talking head on TV channels, appeared on another show, telling the anchor that “in the cabinet meeting we have been told to remain silent about this affair”.
Up to this writing, Shahzad Akbar had not appeared before the press, or on any TV show, to brief anybody. He made one public appearance in Islamabad on Wednesday, in which he touched on the NCA affair superficially, but nothing more. All we have is an oddly drafted press release, which was tweeted out the day the NCA made its revelations.
Akbar’s press release is off…The other line, which tried to absolve Malik Riaz of guilt, was strangely tweeted in identical language by Malik Riaz himself two hours before Mr Akbar’s release. In an odd document written on a blank piece of paper held in someone’s hand, Riaz tweeted an image of a document that began “Note to Editors” and contained a few sentences that were reproduced in identical language in Akbar’s release two hours later. In fact, in Akbar’s release the sentence absolving Riaz of guilt appears twice. Either it was hurriedly written, or the point needed to be emphasised.
In either case, the impression is created that Malik Riaz was somehow involved in the drafting of Shahzad Akbar’s press release, and he tweeted out an earlier draft in haste seeing how rapidly the story was developing.
Shahzad Akbar as a dishonest broker
After getting the cabinet to approve the agenda without sharing the details on December 3, Shahzad Akbar says that the money will go to Supreme Court which means that the money is going back to Malik Riaz to pay the fine.
Money recovered from tycoon lands in Supreme Court - Newspaper - DAWN.COM
Dec 6: After three-day confusion as to who will be the beneficiary of 190 million pounds [Rs39 billion] recovered by the United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency (NCA) from the family of real estate tycoon Malik Riaz, the money has been transferred to the Supreme Court’s accounts and the government has requested it for the transfer of the money to the national exchequer.
“The money has been transferred to the Supreme Court and we have already filed a request before the apex court that the money should be given to us [state of Pakistan],” said Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Accountability Mirza Shahzad Akbar at a joint press conference with Communications Minister Murad Saeed. He later confirmed it during a private TV talk show.
The SAMP, however, did not remove the ambiguity as to how the money can be transferred to the Supreme Court, if the NCA announced in its official press release that it will be given to the state of Pakistan. “We [the government of Pakistan, NCA and Malik Riaz] have also signed a deed of confidentiality. Therefore, I cannot comment more than what has already been presented in the official press releases of the government and the NCA,” he said, adding that: “Is the Supreme Court not part of the government? So if the money goes to the apex court it means that the money comes to the state.”
Earlier, when the NCA gave its decision on Dec 3, Mr Akbar had claimed that the money would directly come to the state.
Interestingly, hours after the NCA verdict, Malik Riaz had claimed, in his tweets, that the recovered amount would go to the Supreme Court to return Rs460bn for acquiring vast land in Karachi for developing the Bahria Town housing scheme. His tweets raised eyebrows of many as to why the government was not taking credit of the recovery.
Barrister Iftikhar, a senior legal expert on UK laws, said at the TV channel that there must be no link with the money repatriated by the NCA to the state and the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
Former attorney general Irfan Qadir said if the money went to the Supreme Court then the court will have to explain about it that how it came into its bank accounts.
Replying to a query that in one of the video clips that did the rounds on social media in which he was receiving a bag from Malik Riaz somewhere in the UK, Shahzad Akbar said it was nothing but a laptop. “It was my laptop as the bag could not carry 190 million pounds,” he added.
Read the bold section above. Shahzad Akbar is being completely dishonest here. If the money is going to Supreme Court, it means that the money has gone to Malik Riaz who has used this to pay the penalty.
The last paragraph in the above excerpt hints at Shahzad Akbar being completely in cahoots with Malik Riaz, which will become clear in the next section.
…the settlement with the NCA later that year was a travesty because, thanks to the Pakistan government, it afforded Mr Riaz a shocking reprieve.
Lawyer Farrukh Qureshi of Samdani and Qureshi described it thus: “It is as if one is apprehended with the proceeds of a crime, and instead of such proceeds being reimbursed to the person wronged, they are used as reparations for another crime. …The amount recovered should [have] come straight back to Pakistan, rather than being put back into Malik Riaz's pocket.”
Shahzad Akbar acting as an agent of Malik Riaz
Malik Riaz & the art of the deal - Pakistan - DAWN.COM
In 2019, Mr Riaz’s £190m settlement in the UK was effected with the use of new civil powers known as Account Freezing Orders (AFOs) which allow law enforcement to target suspected proceeds of crime using a civil rather than a criminal burden of proof. Because it was a civil case, the NCA was able to settle it privately with Mr Riaz rather than going to court to secure a Forfeiture Order.
In August 2019, eight AFOs pertaining to the investigation against Mr Riaz were secured from Westminster Magistrates Court in London. In compliance with the AFOs, more than £100m — which the Guardian reported NCA “suspected to have been derived from bribery and corruption overseas” — was frozen on Aug 12. Some £20m associated with the Riaz family had been frozen earlier in December 2018. The AFOs were made out against accounts held by Mr Riaz’s wife Bina Riaz, daughter Sana Salman, son Ali Riaz, daughter-in-law Mubashra Ali, as well as several companies, including Fortune Events and Ultimate Holdings.
Enter the Pakistani state, reportedly at the behest of Mr Riaz.
During September 2019, Mr Akbar is believed to have met Mr Riaz multiple times, at the Dorchester hotel and at the latter’s daughter’s residence. A widely circulated video showed him meeting the property tycoon outside his daughter’s Paddington flat.
According to a London-based Pakistani source well connected with the British political establishment and anti-corruption organisations in the UK: “Mr Akbar advised the NCA to settle with him [Riaz]. Otherwise, he told them, Riaz would finish their prosecution budget [by having high-powered lawyers drag out court proceedings].”
Mr Akbar clearly took up the matter at the very highest levels of the British government. How else can one explain its Home Office’s refusal to share information about the case despite a request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)? An email to the Home Office’s Criminal Finances Team asking for details about Mr Akbar’s meetings with Mr Riaz received a reply requesting more time for a “full response”, which arrived on Feb 1. The gist of the response was: “We neither confirm nor deny whether we hold the information that you have requested.” They based their response on certain sections under the FOIA that allow for exemptions to disclosure if doing so may prejudice relations with another state or prejudice the prevention or detection of crime.
Why was Shahzad Akbar not interested in how the money was laundered?
Was it because it was Bahria Town laundering money out of Pakistan right under Shahzad Akbar’s nose or maybe with his connivance. From the appeal that Malik Riaz and Ali Riaz filed with UK courts to reverse the cancellation of their multiple entry visa on account of corruption/NCA settlement.
Hussain & Riaz -v- Home Office (judiciary.uk)
42. In the “Grounds for Suspicion” reference is made to the 4 May 2018 decision of the Supreme Court in the Karachi land case, the acceptance by the court on 21 March 2019 of Rs 406 billion (equivalent to 2.3 billion GBP) from Bahria Town in settlement of the judgment and to the existence of the four personal guarantors. Reference is also made to the JIT investigation and to the fact that it had identified that Bahria Town had laundered Rs 10.02 billion (approximately equivalent to 50 million GBP) through fake accounts as bribe payments. It noted that a criminal investigation was being conducted by the NAB which identified that Mr Ali, Zain Malik and Bahria Town had transferred in excess of Rs 2.5 billion (approximately equivalent to 12.5 million GBP) through fake accounts to illegally obtain and regularise a plot of land in Karachi.
43. Detailed are the facts that in February 2017 the combined cash assets of Mr Ali and his wife Mubashra Ali Malik, in a bank account in London, were £56,917,357.00. By December 2019 the combined cash assets with the same bank were £138,505,397.00. At [31] it is stated that:
“I consider the timing of this significant increase of cash reserves held in the UK as highly suspicious and suggestive of attempts to conceal the proceeds of criminal conduct from the Government of Pakistan, especially when considered alongside the political and judicial developments in Pakistan…”
Apparently, what happened here is that as soon as the supreme court judgment was announced, Malik Riaz and Ali Riaz started laundering money out of Pakistan.
Thus, it appears Shahzad Akbar was not interested in pursuing how the money was laundered as it may lead to two conclusions:
Malik Riaz was not interested in paying penalties to Supreme Court as he started moving money out of Pakistan soon after judgment against him was announced by Supreme Court
The investigation may lead to other accounts where Malik Riaz is keeping his funds and Shahzad Akbar isn’t really interested in kicking that hornet’s nest.
So for a bag containing his laptop that he left with Malik Riaz, Shahzad Akbar sold his soul to Malik Riaz and got Imran Khan government to do the same.
Federal Government as Malik Riaz’s agent
Malik Riaz illegally encroached and occupied the land in Karachi with the connivance of officers of the Malir Development Authority (MDA) and the Government of Sindh (GoS). The penalty imposed on Bahria Town was to be paid to the Government of Sind to be used for building infrastructure etc. for the people of Sind. The Federal Government has no role here. But as we will see now, Federal Government, at the behest of the PM, plays a suspicious role.
December 2020
Bahria requests a delay in payment of the fine which is rejected by the Supreme Court
In its plea filed on Tuesday, BTLK had sought freezing of the payment plan issued by the SC in view of pandemic-related recession, requesting that the payment of Rs2.5bn monthly instalments be deferred for three years — till September 2023.
A three-judge bench headed by Justice Ijazul Ahsan heard the application filed by senior counsel Syed Ali Zafar on behalf of the BTLK and its owner Malik Riaz Hussain.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected an application of Bahria Town (Pvt) Ltd Karachi (BTLK) seeking a three-year delay in the payments of the total Rs460 billion that it had agreed to pay for purchasing prime land in Karachi.
March / April 2021
When the aforementioned fails, Malik Riaz writes to the Prime Minister who writes to Attorney General to plead with the Supreme Court to relax the payment of penalties because Malik Riaz is promising to build 3,000 low-cost housing in Bahria Town Karachi. We don’t have a copy of the PM’s letter but the below Law Ministry memo refers to it.
Subsequently, the matter was moved to the court in May 2021
Bahria Town submits proposals for low-cost housing, SC told - Pakistan - DAWN.COM
In a fresh report moved on behalf of the law ministry, the Supreme Court has been informed of a possible memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Bahria Town (Pvt) Ltd (BTPL) which under a deal with the apex court is to pay Rs460 billion as part of an arrangement to settle the Malir land dispute.
The report said Bahria Town had submitted two proposals to the Naya Pakistan Housing Development Authority (NAPHDA) for construction of low-cost housing schemes in Islamabad and Karachi consisting of 3,000 and 2,000 apartments, respectively.
“The proposals are being evaluated and the NAPHDA is likely to sign an MoU with BTPL in respect of these proposals,” said the report furnished by Additional Attorney General Sohail Mahmood before the SC implementation bench.
The bold section in the below excerpt makes it clear that the federal government is asking for relief in the payment, and the Law Ministry is advising “cover your ass”.
The report said the law ministry had sought input from the NAPHDA on April 21 whether BTPL was a significant player in the construction industry and whether the developer was contributing to the authority’s development work.
In response, the NAPHDA had through a letter on April 23 said BTPL was a significant player in the construction industry and that both might sign an MoU.
However, the law ministry in its report said the federal government should plead before the Supreme Court that any flexibility in the payment of instalments may not affect or extend the final deadline already prescribed by the court in its earlier order to make the final payment. Likewise, the deferment of deadline for the payment of instalments, except the deadline for the final payment, should carry payment of mark-up as determined by the court.
Moreover, the report said, BTPL must be directed to fulfil all legal conditions and requirements without taking any undue advantage. And if BTPL is found lacking in its commitment with the government or the court, the federal government may have the right to file an application to recall any extension in the deadline for payment of instalments, if granted by the Supreme Court.
So for a few crumbs of 3,000 apartments in Islamabad and 2,000 apartments in Karachi, Federal Government is pleading to Supreme Court that Supreme Court should relax the payment terms as NAPHDA will sign an MoU with Bahria Town.
January 2022
We don’t know if an MoU was signed, but an eligibility letter was issued by NAPHDA. The below is from my earlier post Sleeping with the enemy: PTI and Bahria Town.
In point 2 of the letter, NAPHDA has agreed with Bahria for the quality of construction material to be used and the cost of completed apartments. In point 3, however, it appears that NAPHDA has made no analysis if construction at this price point is viable. The only thing NAPHDA appears to have studied is the suitability of the location. Later, NAPHDA is shifting all the responsibility to the Manager of Allied Bank Limited, who has to
consider all aspects of the project proposal, including the technical, legal and financial information provided. If the project proposal is found to be economically, technically, environmental feasible and the information submitted by Ms. Madiha Arooj, GM Corporate Affairs, Bahria Town Private Limited about its own legal, techinical, managerial and financial capability is satisfactory, the Manager, Allied Bank Limited, Main Shahrah-e-Faisla Branch, Karachi is requested to communicate its willingress or otherwise within 60 days to NAPHDA to provide developement finance to Ms. Madiha Arooj, GM, Corporate Affair, Bahria Town Private Limited for the above mentioned project. In case the bank is of the view that financing is not feasible/possible, reasons thereof may be communicated to the Authority. This letter shall not be construed and presented as evidence of any approval granted by NAPHDA.
Few things to note:
NAPHDA hasn’t granted any approval to BTK.
NAPHDA only found the project suitable from a livability point of view. From the vague language, we don’t know how NAPHDA assessed livability at the location.
NAPHDA displays a total lack of understanding of how development financing works. This is an embarrassing lack of professionalism and understanding from an organization that has an annual budget of Rs.1 billion and whose officers are collecting salaries from two places: from the military as well as from the budget.
If ABL refuses to finance the project, NAPHDA also wants to know the reasons for the refusal.
The Timeline
Summarizing the above into a timeline.
May 2018 - March 2019: SC judgment of penalizing Bahria Town to Bahria Town finally accepting the judgment.
Feb 2017 - Dec 2019: Funds in a single account maintained in the UK increase from GBP 56M to GBP 138M and NCA notes “I consider the timing of this significant increase of cash reserves held in the UK as highly suspicious and suggestive of attempts to conceal the proceeds of criminal conduct from the Government of Pakistan,…”. How this money left Pakistan was something Shahzad Akbar not interested in following.
Dec 2, 2019: NCA announces the GBP 190M recovery.
Federal government isn’t celebrating this historical haul of GBP 190M.
Dec 3, 2019: Shahzad Akbar most likely with the approval of Imran Khan presents a confidential sealed note to the cabinet as a matter of national security, which the cabinet approved without seeing it.
The note allows the money recovered from Malik Riaz in the UK to be given back to Malik Riaz in Pakistan for paying his Supreme Court penalty.
Dec 15, 2020: Bahria Town approaches Supreme Court for relaxation in payments for three years. Supreme Court rejects Bahria Town’s plea.
Mar 29, 2021: Trying a different tack, Bahria Town writes a letter to PM offering a lollipop of low-cost housing and seeking relaxation from Supreme Court (which was explicitly denied three months ago).
Apr 9, 2021: PM’s office writes a letter to AG asking them to approach the court for seeking relaxation as Bahria Town will be building 3000 low-cost units in Islamabad and 2000 in Karachi under PM’s Naya Pakistan Housing
May 2021: The matter is moved to the court, where it is mentioned that an MoU may be signed between NAPHDA and Bahria Town. The law ministry advises the federal government that while it seeks relaxation on behalf of Bahria Town, the final deadline by which the payment is to be made should not be extended.
January 2022: NAPHDA issues an eligibility letter (and makes it clear that the letter is not evidence of approval) and asks ABL to provide development financing to Bahria for building low-cost housing.
Malik Riaz paid Rs.10 Billion to Asif Zardari as kickback
Malik Riaz isn’t loyal to anyone but himself. From the UK judgment, which quotes from Fake Account JIT. The question is why is Imran Khan entertaining him.
What was the former PM getting?
Shahzad Akbar at least got a bag with his laptop back. What is the PM getting out of it? As per Zulfi Bukhari, around the time Shahzad Akbar and Imran Khan were batting for Malik Riaz, Malik Riaz purchased a piece of land in Jhelum and built a Sufism university on it to realize the vision of the first lady.
NAPHDA - a good-for-nothing white elephant.
What exactly is the role of NAPHDA in the country? Taking credit for housing built by Akhuwat foundation. Providing two salaries to serving military officers.
Only 17,000 housing units delivered under Naya Pakistan initiative (thenews.com.pk)
Approximately, around 59,000 housing units are under construction in different parts of the country, out of which almost 20,000 housing units have been completed so far, data shared by the spokesperson of NAPHDA revealed.
Out of these 20,000, over 17,000 housing units are constructed by Akhuwat and around 3,000 by Workers Welfare Fund, while none are delivered by the NAPHDA and local government departments till now.
The News did a report on the performance of NAPHDA in November last year, which stated, “Akhuwat Foundation takes full responsibility in making those housing units and claims that NAPHDA has nothing to do with them.”
However, the information shared with this correspondent by the NAPHDA also included Akhuwat Foundation’s low-cost houses, which stood over 17,000 units across Pakistan. The NAPHDA spokesperson, when questioned, agreed to this and said that they had no involvement in the housing units constructed by Akhuwat and also revealed that a total of Rs8 billion were given to Akhuwat by the NAPHDA for the construction of these housing units in the start.
So Akhuwat developed 17,000 housing units for Rs.8 billion. Meanwhile, NAPHDA has a budget of Rs.1 billion and hasn’t delivered anything.
The annual budget of NAPHDA as per budget documents is Rs.1 billion in 2020-21.
Serving military officers are working on secondment at NAPHDA.
Those serving on secondment receive the salaries and perks as per regular employees, i.e., they will get two salaries, one from the military and one from the federal government.
The below is a short excerpt from my earlier post.
Sleeping with the enemy: PTI and Bahria Town - by DMKM (substack.com)
The government is so desperate that it doesn’t remember what was promised earlier or how many foundation laying ceremonies for various housing schemes the PM has attended earlier. In one event, the PM launched 110,000 housing units in a single ceremony in April 2019 in Baluchistan (see picture below. I count seven housing projects). Two years have passed and not one has been built.
Another project for construction of 110,000 units in Quetta and Gwadar, including 54,000 for fishermen, had been started while such projects would be initiated in other cities soon
Doesn’t the PM or the government ever wonder what happened to all those ribbon-cuttings that PM has been doing for 3 years now?
Sometimes I joke that if I don’t keep track of these promises, who will? In July 2019, two and a half years ago, PM launched a low-cost housing project where Bahria Town was supposed to deliver 10,000 housing low-cost housing units in two years.
PM opens housing project for general public - Pakistan - DAWN.COM
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday inaugurated the first housing project for the general public.
The project was launched under the PTI government’s much ambitious programme called Naya Pakistan Housing Project (NPHP) on a piece of land in the Phulgaran area where Bahria Town was already executing its housing scheme.
“The land for the project was provided by Bahria Town on very nominal rates,” director general of the Federal Government Employees Housing Foundation Wasim Bajwa told Dawn after the inauguration ceremony.
Under the project, 18,500 housing units/apartments will be constructed and given to the low-income group on a mortgage basis.
Mr Bajwa said 1,785-kanal land had been acquired from Bahria Town for the NPHP. “Not only the land but Bahria Town’s management will also construct 10,000 housing units in the same area later for NPHP,” he said, adding that the cost of the land would be retired to Bahria Town after sale of housing units.
Mr Bajwa said the project was being executed in collaboration with Bahria Town under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSP). “It is the first housing scheme launched solely for general public under NPHP as previous schemes, under NPHP, were meant for federal government employees with a meagre share of general public with ratio of 70 per cent share of employees and 30pc of general public,” he added.
You can see the logo of the Naya Pakistan Housing on the wall. This is what I said about Malik Riaz getting the above project at the time.
This is what the PM said about the above project in August 2019
Recently, he said, a housing project had been launched on Angoori Road in Islamabad which would be completed in one and half years.
It’s been 2.5 years since that statement by PM. Before sending that letter for Malir project, why didn’t NAPHDA ask Bahria Town about the 10,000 low-cost affordable units that they were supposed to deliver 1 year ago? How can NAPHDA trust BTK to deliver on illegally occupied land when Bahria Town couldn’t deliver units on its own land?
The below news report shows the PM making a speech at the Angoori road launch event. As per the employees of Bahria that I talked to at the time, the audience is the workers and contractors of Bahria bussed in by Malik Riaz.
For those of you who can comprehend big numbers, at Rs.2,600,000 per apartment, a 10,000 unit housing project in Islamabad will require Rs.26 billion to construct. Assuming, the low-income buyers can get 90% mortgage, commercial banks should be offering Rs.23 billion of mortgages to the buyers in that project alone, which I can guarantee you is not going to happen, for Bahria to get repaid. Thus, there is no way Malik Riaz is investing/risking Rs.26 billion of his own or investors’ money for a project for which PM Imran Khan cut the ribbon, made a speech and later in another speech stated that it will be ready in 1.5 years. Here we are, 2.5 years hence, and NAPHDA is giving a nod to another project by Bahria without inquiring about that earlier project.
Everyone has a price
As we have been covering for a long time, there are no angels in Pakistani politics. Malik Riaz has everyone in his pocket. Occasionally, we hear criticism from some PMLN politicians about Malik Riaz, but reportedly, it is a matter of personal grudge rather than a matter of principle. However, it was shocking that PTI represented by Shahzad Akbar and Imran Khan is also in cahoots with Malik Riaz.