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Tuesday March 19, 2024

List of 100 Pakistanis owning properties in Dubai presented in NA body

By Mehtab Haider
November 24, 2017

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Thursday formally tabled before the Parliamentary Committee of National Assembly a list of 100 Pakistanis, who own properties in Dubai, but the concerned authorities were still clueless how to proceed against these individuals.

PTI leader Asad Umar was the main mover for probing the property owners in Dubai in the last one and a half year period. On Thursday, the list appeared before the official proceedings of the Sub-Committee of NA Standing Committee on Finance led by Chairperson Dr Shezra Mansab Ali here at the Parliament House.

Later, the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Finance held its meeting under chairmanship of Qaiser Ahmed Sheikh in which the sub-committee was advised to submit its report in writing so that the main committee could take decision whether they should send this investigation reportto NAB for filing of reference because the anti corruption and ill gotten assets abroad fell into the jurisdiction of NAB.

According to the submitted list of 100 individuals owning properties in Dubai, Afraz Alam Khan owns properties at Al Samar and Golf Towers, Ayesha Adeel owns residences BD-B-2 and Yansoon Quarters, Abdullah Hashwani owns Reehan Quarter BD-OTA2, Anisa Farooqi owns the residences II-BDT3, Ashfaque Alam owns Al-Samar GRB-1, Al Samar 3-305, Mosela GR-Mosela, Ashfaque Kumar Chawla owns Fairways-GR-Fairways and Marina Pormennade, Khursheed Ahmed Sheikh owns Marina Quays and Marina Quays West-32-3204, Mehmood owns Phase-1 Yaas Phase-1 18-1803, Mir Alam Khan owns three properties, Naveed Ahmed Khan owns five properties, Raza Kamal Minhas owns four properties, Saira K Iqbal owns two properties, Shahzaib Akhtar owns three properties, Shaista Farhan owns one property, Syed Zaheer Abbas owns two properties, Mehboob Hussain owns two properties, Naddem Aziz Mian owns two properties, SM Kashif Qaseem owns two properties, Najeeb Raheem owns two properties, Najeebur Rehman owns two properties, Naveed Ather Hussain owns two properties, Santosh Kumar Chawla, one property, Shahid Shafiq owns one property, Shaikh Aftab Aijaz owns two properties, Shazdeh Vakil owns nine properties, Shaikh Muhammad Nadeem owns two properties, Abdul Qadir owns two properties, Majid Hassan owns one property, Muhammad Zubair Waqar owns two properties, Zia Hameed owns one property, Khurrum Khalil owns one property, Khalil Ahmed owns one property, Faraz Haroon owns two properties, Asif Nisar two properties, Bakhtiar Khan four properties, Anwar Yahya four properties, Fawad Usman 3 properties, Jamil Yahya 2 properties, Mujeeb Malik three properties, Masood Ahmed Shaikh two properties, Mst. Maria Maryam one property, Zakim Khan and Hamid Hasan own one property each, Usman Khan one property, Syed Muhammad Shibli one property, Mr. Shuaib Anwar Malik one property, Saqib Fareed one property, Mst. Salma Hamid one property, Mst. Safina Syma Khar one property, Sadaqat Said two properties, Riffat Shaheen Qazi one property, Nisar Kiyani two properties, Mst. Naureen Sami Khan one property, Muhammad Munir Fazla one property, Malik Iftikhar Khan one property, Kamran Masud one property, Haroon Akbar one property, Hamid Farooq one property, Begum Jahanara Aminuddin one property, Basil Faruki two properties, Muhammad Ali two properties, Syed Ali Shabbar Jafferi two properties, Javed Umer two properties, Shaikh Furrukh Saleem one property, Mst. Sadia Khan one property, Junaid Khalil Nanitalwala owns one property, Agha Shahid Majeed Khan one property, Abdullah one property, Asadullah Agha one property, Dure Seema one property, Agha Arsalan Khan one property, Adeel Anwar four properties, Ayesha Umair Siddiqui one property, Ajaz Ahmed Malik one property, Mohammad Shoeb two properties, Farah Razak one property, Farhan Iqbal Saya one property, Imran Ahmed Farid one property, Farkhanda Nasreen Khan one property, Mst Mariam Shahbir one property, Mst Madiha Shahbir one property, Shahzad Waseem one property, Fahad Sultan Ahmed two properties, Kashif Nazeer two properties, Ammara Khan two properties, Adil Bashir one property, Adnan Ahmed Khan one property, Aleema Khanum one property, Khalid Imran one property, Mansoor Ul Haq two properties, Waqar Ahmed 10 properties, Arshad Khan, Ch Saleemullah, Junaid Sami Khan, Karim Aziz Malik, Momin Qamar and Farhan Hanif own one property each, Mohammad Safwan owns two properties, Mohammad Tariq owns one property and Sultan Ahmed Feroz owns four properties. The sub-committee of the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Finance dwelt upon the reasons for ascertaing facts for the failure of government functionaries in probing the purchase of properties worth $8 billion in Dubai in the last four years by Pakistanis.

Earlier, the sub-committee was informed that neither FBR, State Bank nor FIA was empowered to demand the details of Pakistanis who have invested abroad, and only NAB was the focal agency to deal with anti-money laundering or corruption issues with other countries.

However, the FIA team led by Zaheer Ahmed, Director, presented a list of 100 persons who have properties in Dubai, and informed that the list was part of an inquiry conducted by the FIA Karachi. While presenting the list, the FIA director said that it was yet to determine if all the property owners were local Pakistanis or non-residents.

Meanwhile, Tariq Pasha, Chairman FBR, said that Pakistan has a double taxation treaty with the UAE but they do not respond to any of the queries floated by the FBR in past several previous years.

As Mr Asad Umar inquired the reasons about the response by the UAE over the query by the JIT in the Panama probe, which led to the implication of the former prime minister. “Why is that they do not respond about the details of ordinary Pakistanis but provided the answers about a sitting prime minister,” Asad Umar asked the officials.

However, the officials of FIA said that the demand for information was floated by NAB and it was very specific, whereas the queries related to properties by Pakistanis is generalized and they avoid it – possibly to protect their investors.

The committee was also informed that there were several flaws in the anti-corruption laws that needed to be rectified by the government as the law for FIA in this regard was the Foreign Assets Declaration Regulations 1972. He also said that the government has not signed several bilateral agreements on cooperation in corruption probes with the UAE.