The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered for the transfer of funds remitted to its bank accounts in the Bahria Town settlement case to the federal and Sindh governments, directing the National Bank of Pakistan to provide confirmation of the same to the SC registrar.
Last month, the three-judge bench—comprising Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa and Justices Athar Minallah and Aminuddin Khan—had issued notices to various different individuals and entities who allegedly remitted from abroad £136 million and roughly $44 million for the payment of the Bahria Town settlement. Of the entities issued notices—Fortune Event Limited, U.A.E.; Mubashara Ali Malik, Bina Riaz and Sana Salman, U.A.E.; Mashreq Bank, London; Ultimate Holdings, British Virgin Islands; Premier Investments Global Limited, U.A.E.; Ahmed Ali Riaz, U.A.E.; and Wedlake Bell LLP, U.K.—only Mashreq Bank appeared before the Supreme Court. It said it had been instructed by account holder Mubashahara Ali Malik to comply with the account freezing order of Dec. 14, 2018 issued by the Westminster Magistrate Court London, after which £19.9 million were remitted to the accounts maintained by the Supreme Court registrar.
Similarly, the U.K. National Crime Agency had recovered around £190 million from the family of Bahria Town owner Malik Riaz in 2019, repatriating it to the state of Pakistan. This amount, intended for the state, was transferred to the Supreme Court on orders of the federal cabinet of then-prime minister Imran Khan as part of Bahria Town’s payment for the Rs. 460 billion it was required to pay for acquiring land in Karachi for a housing project.
“Since none of the parties to whom notices were issued, except the Mashreq Bank, [came] forward and as March 21, 2019, Supreme Court judgement requires to make the payment, it would be wrong for this court to retain the amount or any amount earned as a mark-up,” read the order dictated by CJP Isa on Thursday. It also said the two amounts of £136 million and $44 million—combined roughly equal to Rs. 35 billion—would now be placed at the disposal of the federal government. Any sum beyond this amount, said the order, would be deposited in the account of the Sindh government.
The schedule agreed between Bahria Town and the Supreme Court for the payment of the Rs. 460 billion had called for a down-payment of Rs. 25 billion, followed with monthly payments of Rs. 2.5 billion for the first four years. The remainder amount—Rs. 315 billion—was to be paid in equal instalments over three years, with the deal maturing in 2026. In case of default, the SC had warned, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) could file references against the property developer.
In Thursday’s hearing, Bahria Town lawyer Salman Aslam Butt continued arguments that the property developer had been granted possession of 11,747 acres against the 16,896 acres it was supposed to receive from the Sindh government. However, the Sindh advocate general submitted a report stating that a survey had found Bahria Town was in possession of 19,931.63 acres in Malir and Jamshoro, 3,035.63 acres in excess of the agreed amount. The Bahria Town lawyer has sought additional time to rebut this report.
The order also noted that it was “surprising” that Bahria Town had unilaterally decided to suspend payments in violation of its settlement with the court. “It appears that applications filed by the entity merely were a pretext to avoid compliance of the consent court order and if any party raise any objection to that, the entity has the excuse regarding pending applications,” it added.
Describing this an “abuse of process of the court,” the order observed that Bahria Town had not only stopped making payments, it had also not relinquished the excess lands in its possession. “This could not have happened without complicity of the concerned officials,” read the order, adding that it expected the provincial government to take appropriate action against accused officials, as per assurances of the advocate general.