ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Tuesday claimed it has credible information that property tycoon Malik Riaz and his accomplices have illegally occupied state lands, as well as, lands owned by private persons.

According to an official statement, the anti-graft body has credible information about the fact that Riaz and his accomplices have not only illegally possessed/ occupied State-owned land but also land belonging to private persons situated at Karachi, Takht-Parri, Rawalpindi and New Murree.

It says that the accountability court has declared Riaz an absconder in the Al-Qadir Trust case and the government is approaching the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for the extradition of Riaz through legal channels.

At present, NAB is conducting inquiries/ investigations against the owner of Bahria Town (Pvt) Ltd, Malik Riaz and the people associated with him for fraud, deceptive practices and cheating public at large. Riaz is using these lands for developing housing societies allegedly without obtaining mandatory/ required regulatory permissions/ no objection certificates (NOCs) and has committed fraud against the State and the general public at large worth billions of rupees, it says.

It says that in a duplicitous manner, the property tycoon has been developing housing societies under the name of Bahria Town (Pvt) Ltd in other cities including Peshawar and Jamshoro by illegally-possessing/ occupying land and failing to procure the same mandatory regulatory permissions and NOC as stated earlier.

It says that Riaz continues to defraud the general public at large by selling them plots/ files in these illegal housing societies. Neither does Malik Riaz nor Bahria Town (Pvt) Ltd have a good/ clear title to any of the lands in these illegal housing societies

It says that Riaz is residing in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. He has recently launched a project for the construction of luxury apartments in Dubai.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2025