Malik Riaz talking to media after his acquittal. PHOTO: INP
An accountability court on Saturday dropped proceedings against real estate magnate Malik Riaz and his son Ali Riaz before commencing a trial in a land grabbing case.
Accepting a plea by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), accountability judge Chaudhry Abdul Haq dropped proceedings against the father and son. Twelve others, however, were charge-sheeted over involvement in a 1,401-kanal land-grabbing case.
During the hearing, NAB prosecutor Sardar Zulqarnain told the court that the bureau had found no evidence against Riaz – also present before proceedings – and his son, and requested the withdrawal of proceedings against them. He maintained Riaz and his son had been wrongly implicated in the case, despite the fact that their names had not been mentioned in the FIR.
The residents of Rawat village, Rawalpindi had lodged complaints against Riaz and his son, along with 12 other persons, accusing them of bribing Punjab revenue officials to transfer 1,401 kanals of land near the village to their names under fake documents. On November 4, 2009, the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) registered a case against Bahria Town and the twelve other persons, which included officials from the Punjab revenue department.
In October, 2011, Rawalpindi Anti-Corruption Court issued arrest warrants for Riaz and his son. Later in November the same year, the NAB chairman directed ACE to handover all records of the case. On February 9, 2013, NAB had declared Riaz and his son to be innocent in the case.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 3rd, 2013.
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Malik is the great businessman and successful personality i would like to draw the Malik Riaz attention on a serious issue of our nation is education pls do something to literate our nation nobody cannot play any role regarding this but i think Malik Riaz can do it I have an idea malik sb should introduce an educational plan on installment like his real estate businessThis would be a great and memorable activity for Pakistan and the world.We can return our plots located in bahria town after clear our payment plan and Malik Riaz can offer medical or engineering faculity against our purchased plots on return basis for our childrens .Respected Malik Riaz sb please think about our purposal.