This is apropos some of the media reports wherein a malicious campaign is being carried out to malign National Accountability Bureau casting one sided aspersions over NAB as an institution and its workings. The context used in some of the said media reports are premised on deliberate conjecturing and assumptions based on cherry picked surmises which are far from true facts aimed only to bring disrepute and discredit NAB. NAB has time and again clarified and announced that it has no affiliation with any political party, individual or group and its affiliation is only with the State of Pakistan. NAB is an apex anti-corruption organization of the country which is mandated with the responsibility of eradication of corruption and to recover money from corrupt elements. It has been said time and again by NAB in order to present a correct and unbiased picture to the general public as media must ascertain facts and avoid airing/publishing concocted, baseless, false, and incorrect stories about the working of NAB without seeking the official viewpoint of NAB as per law. NAB is a law abiding organization which strongly believes in working as per law. It is also being reiterated over here that NAB will not bow down under any propaganda campaign whatsoever about its transparent, fair and meritocratic workings which will continue to nab corrupt elements and to recover looted money and deposit in national exchequer considering it as its national service. The mandate under the NAO 1999 empowers NAB to initiate proceedings against holders of a public office, or any other person for corruption and corrupt practices.
As far as the performance of NAB is concerned, NAB is the focal organization of Pakistan under the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC). Pakistan is the only country that has signed an MOU with China through NAB to oversee ongoing projects under CPEC. Due to the efforts of NAB, Pakistan had become the first head of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation’s (AARC) Anti-Corruption Forum. NAB has recovered Rs. 714 billion from corrupt elements directly and indirectly since its inception which is record achievement. NAB has introduced the concept of the Combined Investigation Team (CIT) system in order to benefit from collective wisdom which is lending quality. NAB has also established its own Forensic Science Laboratory in order to have the forensic analysis of fingerprints, questioned documents, digital forensic in order to save time, ensure secrecy and quality of investigation. NAB has established its own Pakistan Anti-Corruption Academy to provide state of the art training facilities to its investigation officers and prosecutors on modern lines. NAB’s prosecution division is vigorously pursuing the corruption cases in the respected courts as per law and our overall conviction ratio in Accountability Courts is about 68.8 percent. The reputed national and international organizations like Transparency International Pakistan, World Economic Forum, PILDAT, Mishal Pakistan, and as per survey of Gallop, 59 percent of people have shown trust upon NAB. NAB has filed 1230 corruption references in respected Accountability Courts which are under trial in respected Accountability Court and their total worth is about Rs. 943 billion.
Moreover, NAB has clarified media reports and said that Land of Kidney Hill area was reserved for amenity purpose i.e. development of Public Park. KDA published Notification in Gazette of Pakistan under Article 45 of KDA order dated 07-11-1966 & 05-09-1969 regarding Kidney Hill as KDA Scheme No. 32 “FALAKNAMA” and propose it to be a recreational area as park. In 1973, Overseas Housing Society managed allotment of Kidney Hill land from Karachi Cooperative Housing Societies Union which was not part of the Union land and also got approval of the Layout Plan from the Ministry of Housing and Works which was suspended in 1979 and subsequently cancelled in 1984. The Status of Land of Kidney Hill remained contested between KDA/KMC and Society on account of its nature as amenity or residential in the respected High Court of Sindh since 1990. Finally, the status of Kidney Hill land is determined as Amenity land by Honorable Supreme Court of Pakistan vides judgment dated 06-08-2019 in CMA No. 592-K/2018.
M Aijaz Haroon made backdated illegal and unlawful allotment of 12 x plots of Overseas Society in the name of various builders and subsequently managed their ownership through open transfer letters. Later on, Saleem Mandviwalla and Aijaz Haroon, knowingly and willingly, entered into a property deal with Abdul Ghani Majeed of Omni Group and received Rs. 144 million approximately from fake bank accounts namely A-One International and Lucky International. M Aijaz Haroon and Saleem Mandiwalla shared crime proceeds of Rs. 80 million and Rs. 64.5 million respectively. Out of said shady deal, Saleem Mandviwalla retained a substantial amount of deal which is highly unusual rather next to impossible in any bonafide property deal. The retention of huge amounts and utilization of crime proceeds outweigh his contention of being a bonafide facilitator / broker of deal and illustrate his complicity in property deal. Even otherwise, as a general principle, a real estate agent or coordinator is expected to be an expert (skillful, knowledgeable and experienced) as to facts that are basic to any property transaction. Because a real estate coordinator gathers, prepares, analyzes, and determines the value of property. He is held to a professional standard of care and diligence. In any property transaction, the dealer in the very first instance thoroughly familiarizes himself with genuineness of title and that of property is free from any sort of encumbrances. The accused deliberately chose not to probe the substantive questions so that he could deny knowledge.
Saleem Mandivwalla has utilized his brother company Mandviwalla Builders and Developers and its bank account in the said transaction to camouflage the transaction as business transaction. He is beneficiary of the said deal as he has utilized the crime proceeds for his personal benefits. Initially he purchased plot No. 30/55-A in Overseas Cooperative Housing Society (OCHS) Block 7 & 8 in the name of his employee Abudl Qadir Shiwani and also settled his personal loan with Trust Dawat e Haddayah Karachi. The details are as under:
No person materially relevant to the deal has declared the respective amount in their tax record before FBR. However after cognizance and revelation of matter by Joint Investigation Team (JIT) as well as NAB, Aijaz Haroon tried to guise the actualities by revising his tax returns whereby alleged amounts remitted to Saleem Mandviwalla were given the color of loan. Such disclosure is nothing but an afterthought to cover up their complicity as the tax declarations made by Saleem Mandviwalla does not make any such disclosure till date.
Saleem Mandviwalla, after a period of 6 to 8 month, sold the property which was purchased by using crime proceeds in the name of Qadir Shiwani. Its proceeds were again routed in the company account of Mandviwalla Builders and Developers of which Saleem Mandviwalla held the mandate to operate since 2013. The same account containing proceeds of alleged crime was again used by Saleem Mandviwalla in purchase of 3 million shares of Mangla View Resort valuing around Rs. 31 million approximately in the name of his employee Tariq Mehmood. The same shares have been frozen by the respected Accountability Court Islamabad on 24-11-2020. All the payments were made by Saleem Mandviwalla under his own signatures. Tariq Mehmood is an employee of Saleem Mandviwalla having no financial worth. Apparently, he has been surfaced as benamidar of the Saleem Mandviwalla.
Saleem Mandviwalla was issued a call up notice to appear before CIT on October 18, 2019 to justify the retention as well as utilization of crime proceeds by himself by serving a questionnaire. He replied to the questionnaire after a lapse of around 5 months which lacks any explanation/justification. Subsequently, he was again issued call- up notice dated 25-06-2020 for his justification pertaining to utilization of crime proceeds. Instead of cooperation during the investigation, the accused Saleem Mandviwalla resorted to conceal himself behind the business community. Bearing in mind the facts / circumstances of the case referred to above and the documentary evidence, as confirmed again, by the testimony of witnesses overwhelmingly lead only to the irresistible conclusion that Saleem Mandviwalla is recipient of a substantial sum of allegedly crime proceeds which he has used for his own personal benefits.
Previously, in August, 2020, Mr. Saleem Mandviwalla had written a letter to Chairman NAB which was processed and accordingly NAB responded with a vide letter dated 22.09.2020. Moreover, Chairman NAB on Nov 30, 2020 met with Mr. Saleem Mandviwalla, Deputy Chairman Senate of Pakistan at NAB headquarters where he apprised Chairman NAB about his case. The Chairman NAB said that he has great regard for Parliamentarians and their self respect will be ensured as per law. He further said that the case Mr. Saleem Mandviwalla will be examined and justice will prevail in accordance with law. NAB has reiterated again that NAB always believes in working in accordance with law. Since the matter is subjudice in the respected Accountability Court Islamabad. NAB will present its case in the respected Accountability Court Islamabad as per law. NAB has reiterated again that NAB is a people-friendly institution which always believes in ensuring self-esteem of everyone and also believes in working according to law. Conveying such kind of wrong impression to the public by some of the media through one sided and incorrect reporting against the transparent working of NAB is against the journalistic ethics as well as rules. NAB hopes that in the true spirit of responsible journalism, an effort should always be made to verify the authenticity of the facts from NAB before going to print/air any news related to NAB as per law.
