NICL Dubai property scam: Phoney figures used to save major accused

New independent valuation finds company overpaid for asset

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani courts have apparently been misled to save the skins of six accused persons in a high-profile property purchase scam involving the National Insurance Company Limited (NICL).

An officially commissioned report confirms that the company had paid an amount 159% above the market value while purchasing the property in Dubai eight years ago.

The fresh valuation report has been conducted by Land Sterling – a British chartered surveyor and property consultant that provides valuation services for commercial and residential property in the Middle East and North Africa.

It reveals that in July 2009, the value of six office units was just 28.8 million dirhams (AED), equivalent to Rs633 million approximately.



However, the then NICL management had bought these office units for AED74.05 million, or Rs1.63 billion, causing a loss of roughly Rs1 billion in just one deal.

The deal was also investigated by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), but the probes went nowhere.

The NICL affairs had remained under the scrutiny of the courts till 2014, when the accused persons were eventually acquitted.

Now, two and a half years after their acquittal, it has been revealed that the courts were misled to save some high-profile figures.

The Land Sterling valuation report further revealed that even in December 2016 – seven and a half years after the Dubai deal – the market value of the property was only AED42.765 million, which is still 42.2% lesser than the 2009 purchase price.

“NICL commissioned the valuation report on the directions of the NICL board of directors and the commerce ministry,” NICL Chief Executive Officer Captain (retd) Jamil Akhtar Khan told The Express Tribune while confirming the authenticity of the report.

In December 2014, an accountability court had acquitted former NICL chairman Ayaz Khan Niazi and five others in the property scam. The court had acquitted the accused persons after a report was submitted to the court that AED74.05 million was the prevailing market price of the six flats in 2009.

The other accused persons were Amin Qasim Dada, Muhammad Zahoor, Zahid Hussain, Navid Hasan Zaidi, and Hur Gardezi.

The Supreme Court of Pakistan had taken suo motu notice of the case after it was alleged that against a market price of AED1,200 per square foot, the NICL management bought the office space in Dubai at AED2,700 per square foot, causing a Rs900 million loss.



NICL is a public limited company that is responsible for providing insurance cover to the government and semi-government organisations. It had bought 27,429 square feet in total, which Land Sterling’s report suggests, should have had a valuation of only AED1,094.49 per square foot in 2009.

The CEO of NICL said that there was strong perception that NICL did not sustain any loss in the 2009 deal, but the fresh valuation report proves otherwise. He said the services of Land Sterling were hired in line with Public Procurement Regulatory Authority rules.

The valuators inspected the property in July this year and used the Sales Compression Method for assessing 2009 values.

The Dubai property comprises six office units of various sizes with a gross area of 27,429 square feet and total sellable area of 22,024 square feet in Liberty House, Dubai International Financial Centre, around 10km from Dubai International Airport.

“The second quarter of 2009 saw property prices fall at an average of 24% compared to the first three months of 2009, outpacing falls anywhere else in the world,” according to the valuation report. It said that in March 2009 – three months before NICL signed the deal – the prevailing market price was AED32.13 million.

The issue of the Dubai property was briefly discussed on Friday in a meeting of the sub-committee of the Public Accounts Committee, headed by PTI’s Shafqat Mehmood.

“We are not going to give up the matter and will take to task the FIA officials who gave a clean chit in the Dubai property deal,” Mehmood said told The Express Tribune.

He said it was shocking how the FIA gave a clean chit to anyone when, even eight years after the deal, the property’s value was still lower than the purchase price.