Key Takeaways
- Three men, including a retired officer and a senior Bahria Town official, were convicted of illegally transferring funds abroad.
- The court sentenced each to one year’s imprisonment and fined them Rs500,000.
- This conviction follows another high-profile case where the same judge found the vice chief executive guilty of money laundering.
A local court in Islamabad has convicted three individuals, including a retired officer and a senior Bahria Town official, for illegally transferring funds abroad related to Bahria Town projects. The court handed down sentences of one year’s imprisonment and a fine of Rs500,000 to each of the convicts.
The convicted parties were Bahria Town Vice Chief Executive Colonel (retd) Khalilur Rehman, hawala operator Imran Kaka, and property dealer Mushtaq Ahmed. The court found them guilty under the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act for illegally sending money abroad for various Bahria Town projects.
According to the prosecution, the accused violated provisions of the Act by transferring funds through illegal channels instead of authorised banking channels. This case is part of a broader anti-money laundering investigation against real estate tycoons in Pakistan.
The latest conviction comes months after the same judge convicted Rehman in a separate high-profile money laundering case under the Anti-Money Laundering Act, 2010. In that case, he was found guilty of laundering approximately Rs1.6 billion and sentenced to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment with a fine of Rs25m.
The court’s detailed judgment highlighted how the accused had systematically layered financial transactions and used third parties to conceal the origin of 'proceeds of crime.' The judge observed that the laundering of Rs1.6bn, the organised nature of the transactions, and the absence of mitigating circumstances warranted a maximum sentence due to the economic harm caused to society.
In related developments, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has taken physical possession of Karachi’s Bahria Icon Tower, estimated to be worth around Rs100 billion, in a significant development in an ongoing anti-money laundering investigation against real estate tycoon Malik Riaz. In May, NAB had also frozen 3,150 acres of land acquired for Bahria Town in Jamshoro district and the 67-acre villa of Riaz’s son Ali Riaz.
These actions by the court and NAB reflect a growing crackdown on financial irregularities within major real estate projects in Pakistan. The convictions underscore the government's commitment to enforcing stringent regulations and ensuring transparency in large-scale property development.
