ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has booked several including real estate tycoon Malik Riaz over illegal allotment of amenity land for Bahria Icon Tower, the tallest building of Pakistan, in Clifton, Karachi.

The said reference is an offshoot of the fake accounts case against Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur. It is first reference filed by the accountability watchdog against the chairman of Bahria Town. The NAB has nominated his son-in-law as well in the illegal allotment of amenity land case, DAWN news reported.

Apart from them, former PPP senator Yousuf Baloch, former advisor to chief minister Dinshaw Anklesaria, former Sindh chief secretary Abdul Subhan Memon, former director general parks and horticulture Liaquat Qaimkhani, Waqas Riffat, Ghulam Arif, Khawaja Shafiq, Jamil Baloch, Afzal Aziz, Syed Muhammed Shah, Khurram Arif, Abdul Karim Palejo, Khawaja Baddiuzzama and others are also nominated in the land fraud reference.

Interestingly, the NAB, which shows haste in issuing a press release against opposition leaders while the case is at investigation level only, neither issued a statement in this regard this time nor relayed any details to the media.

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The reference filed with registrar of an accountability court mentions that Bahria Icon Tower was being built on an amenity plot abutting Bagh Ibn-e-Qasim. It said the land was allotted unlawfully which had inflicted a loss worth one billion rupees to the national exchequer.

The tallest Pakistani building is located opposite to the Arabian Sea which has 62 floors.

Following scrutiny, the registrar office would send the reference to the accountability court’s administrative judge Muhammed Bashir.

Last year in June, former secretary Sindh Works and Services Sajjad Abbasi was arrested for his alleged involvement in allotting the Bahria Icon Tower plot, who later became approver in the case. In a statement recorded with the court, he said that he had sold the plot to Dr Dinshaw Anklesaria when he was serving on the post of Executive District Officer Revenue. He claimed that Anklesaria sold the plot to Malik Riaz, who later built the tower on it.