Former Prime Minister’s Assistant on Accountability Mirza Shehzad Akbar has revealed that the PTI Cabinet had approved property tycoon Malik Riaz’s £140 million crime proceeds settlement to be kept secret because it was part of Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA). CA) was required.
Mr. Akbar disclosed this in an application seeking permission to testify via video link to the Pakistan High Commission, London, in connection with the said settlement and removal by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB). It was said in response to the call-up notice. Its name is from Exit Control List (ECL).
A division bench comprising Justice Mian Gul Hasan Aurangzeb and Justice Arbab Muhammad Tahir of the Islamabad High Court heard the petition and issued notices to the NAB and the federal government.
The Public Accounts Committee had in April questioned the NAB chairman for showing ‘undue favour’ to the property tycoon by allowing him to pay a fine of Rs 460 billion out of the £140 million returned to Pakistan by the NCA. The fine was related to Mr Riaz’s housing project on Karachi’s Super Highway in 2019.
Shahzad sought the court’s help to remove the name from NAB online interview, no-fly list
According to NAB records, the amount recovered from the Riaz family in London in November 2019 was around 140 million pounds. All this was transferred to an account managed by the Supreme Court… Of the £190m settlement, the NCA returned £140m, while the rest was the value of real estate seized from Riyadh, which has yet to be received. was
Mr Akbar reportedly received Cabinet approval in 2019 to dispose of the proceeds from the NCA, which investigates money laundering and illicit finance from criminal activities and uses stolen funds to target victims. Returns states.
In his plea, Mr. Akbar said, “This settlement relates to a matter in the UK, which falls under the control and jurisdiction of UK law enforcement agencies”. He said that NAB politically started an inquiry related to a civil settlement in which even the federal government was not a party. The petition stated that the original party to the settlement was the NCA. He argued that the transaction which was being made the subject of the call-up notice did not fall within the jurisdiction of the NAB as the Federal Government of Pakistan was not a party to the original settlement.
It said, “The petitioner also served as the Chairman of the Asset Recovery Unit and as the head prepared a summary for the then Federal Cabinet to apprise the Cabinet of the matter and non-disclosure. The agreement could be signed, which was required. The NCA as the ARU initially assisted the NCA in obtaining the asset freeze order by providing the required information from Pakistan.
The former adviser said that in response to NAB’s August 2 call-up notice, he requested that he be interviewed through video link, Skype, WhatsApp, Zoom or any other available online means. He even offered to participate in the inquiry through video link from the Pakistan High Commission, London, if NAB so desired, the petition said, asking for an online interview again on August 15, but to no avail. The petitioner was of the view that “if [NAB’s] intention was to gather information and do justice, NAB would have accepted the request for an online interview”.
He said that the PML-N government is taking illegal punitive actions against him by putting his name in the ECL in his absence from the country.
