SC to hear Bahria Town implementation case today

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court will hear today the Bahria Town Karachi (BTK) case related to the implementation of its order for the recovery of Rs460 billion.

In compliance with the SC’s order, a private bank submitted its reply through a miscellaneous application in the case on Wednesday, stating that the bank sent a payment on behalf of the BTK to the apex court’s bank account number 4151238163 in the National Bank of Pakistan’s Foreign Office Branch after receiving specific written instructions of Bahria Town chairman Malik Riaz’s daughter-in-law Mubashra Malik.

The documents attached with the miscellaneous application show that the account is governed by the laws of England in which relevant courts of England have exclusive jurisdiction.They included a letter issued to the private bank’s head of compliance in London, Andrew Dales, by the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) officer Gemma Waughman on November 22, 2019. The letter states that the NCA has confirmed from the relevant Westminster Magistrates’ Court that district judge Snow has set aside the court’s December 14, 2018 account freezing order (AFO) against Malik’s bank account number GBP 187950008 and sort code 75-46-20, having a balance of GBP19,999,984.27.

According to the Bahria Town spokesperson, the documents submitted by the private bank in the SC refute the allegations and propaganda that the NCA had frozen Malik’s bank account in the interest of the government of Pakistan and that it was not for Bahria Town’s use. A three-member SC bench, comprising Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa, Justice Amin-Ud-Din Khan and Justice Athar Minallah, will hear the case. During the previous hearing, the court had ordered the Sindh government to conduct a survey of the entire land occupied by BTK, while conjoining the constitutional petitions regarding depositing GBP190 million, which were allegedly recovered from Bahria Town, from England in the SC’s bank account and alleged encroachment of forest and national park land by the BTK in in the case. The court had also issued a notice to Syed Mehmood Akhtar Naqvi, who is the petitioner in an application over alleged encroachment on government land by the BTK.The court had ordered the Sindh government and the Malir Development Authority to conduct a survey of all the land occupied by the BTK using photographs and Google Maps, while directing the authorities to inform the real estate company in advance about the day and date of the survey. The court had asked the provincial government to ascertain how much of public, private, forest and national park land was in the possession of BTK. The court had instructed its accounts department officials to share the details of the foreign bank account numbers from which the money was deposited in the SC’s bank account with the private bank’s counsel so that his client could provide details on the money senders. After surfacing of the details, the court had directed issuance of notices to the account holders. During the hearing, the court had also directed the counsel for the Bahria Town chairman to seek instructions from his client as to whether he will represent only Malik or his other family members as well.