ISLAMABAD – Another blow to Malik Riaz, the leading real estate giant in Pakistan, as the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) is set to auction off key Bahria Town properties belonging to him at its Rawalpindi office this week.
This high-profile crackdown comes amid the failure of Malik Riaz and his son Ali Riaz to pay sum agreed upon in a plea bargain deal. Despite desperate legal maneuvers, Bahria Town’s last-ditch effort to block auction crumbled. Islamabad High Court slammed gavel, dismissing petitions aimed at halting the sale and giving NAB a clear green light to move full steam ahead.
For weeks, the auction was on hold after Bahria Town secured a stay order, but that reprieve is now history. A division bench led by Chief Justice Sardar Muhammad Sarfraz Dogar and Justice Mohammad Asif announced verdict, allowing NAB to proceed with what could be one of the most dramatic asset liquidations in Pakistan’s real estate history.
Seaosoned lawyer Farooq H. Naik made fiery arguments on behalf of Bahria Town, accusing NAB of acting in bad faith with a “deceptive and illegal” auction notice. He claimed Malik Riaz’s empire was being unfairly targeted and insisted the properties had been wrongfully seized.
As NAB stood firm, prosecutor Rafay Maqsood hit back, saying Malik Riaz and his son had blatantly violated their plea bargain, leaving the bureau no choice but to recover public money through auction. And now, the stage is set for a fire-sale of landmark assets, including:
The clock is ticking. The gavel will fall on August 7, and with it, a piece of Malik Riaz’s billion-rupee real estate kingdom could slip away — forever.
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