Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said on Saturday that an amount recovered by the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) in a settlement with the family of real estate tycoon Malik Riaz and later handed over to the federal government would be used for welfare of the nation.
The Information Minister was addressing a press conference in Lahore a day after the judgment in the Al-Qadir Trust case. Former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi were formally convicted in the £190 million Al-Qadir Trust corruption case, and both were sentenced to prison.
According to the verdict, the “property of the Al-Qadir University project trust” was confiscated from the federal government. The other accused, namely Bahria Town owner Malik Riaz Hussain, his son Ahmed Ali Riaz Malik, former accountability czar Mirza Shahzad Akbar, former advisor to Prime Minister Zulfi Bukhari, Farhat Shahzadi and Ziaul Mustafa Nasim They have already been declared offenders and have been issued with perpetual arrest warrants. and the confiscation of their properties has been ordered.
The detailed verdict, spanning 148 pages, recalled that the Supreme Court had held that the grant of land by the Sindh Board of Revenue (SBR) to the Malir Development Authority (MDA) and the subsequent exchange of land for part of the MDA with Bahria City (Pvt) Limited were all illegal and were the result of collusion between all interested parties.
Bahria Town subsequently agreed to pay a total sum of Rp460 billion for the land. The verdict said funds from foreign bank accounts, previously frozen by the NCA, were repatriated to settle Bahria Town’s obligations instead of being added to the national fund.
In his press conference about the entire situation, the Minister of Information said: “The fine [of Rs460bn] that was applied [by the Supreme Court] that was being paid through this amount [of £190m]Obviously after this order this amount cannot be used to pay that fine. So now it is a question between that private party and the court how the court recovers that money.
“The State’s task was to recover the amount that should be returned. So now it will come back and be used for the well-being of the nation.”
Tarar said legal consultations were underway on how to bring back the fugitives and what avenues would be used to do so.
The minister claimed that Imran had no legal recourse to appeal the case and also demanded that any appeal be settled after the hearing after the pending appeals were decided.
“They have no material, legal arguments, documentation or evidence, so they will try to play with technicality. The appeal will be very weak… I do not believe that the case has sufficient merit for the appeal to be considered beyond two or three hearings,” he said.
