Malik Riaz named accused in a trillion rupees land scam

ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau has filed a reference against a real estate tycoon Malik Riaz and others on an illegal allotment for Pakistan's tallest building Bahria Icon Tower in Clifton, Karachi.

The above reference is part of the fake accounts case against former President and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur.

This is the first reference in which the Chairman of the Bahria Town has been nominated, and the NAB has also accused his son-in-law Zain Malik.

Interestingly, the NAB, which often shows the release of press releases against opposition leaders only at the investigative level, did not make any statement or inform the media about the details of the reference.

However, the reference filed with the Registrar of Accountability Courts stated that the charity plot on which the Bahria Town built the iconic tower attached to Bagh Ibn Qasim was illegally allotted one trillion rupees to the national exchequer.

It should be noted that this high-rise building is located near the coast of the Arabian Sea in Karachi, which has 62 floors of which 40 floors are of different use.

After the scrutiny, the Registrar's Office will forward the said reference to the accountability court's administrative judge, Mohammad Bashir.