LAHORE, Nov 5: Taking suo moto notice of an announcement for sale of land at Guilford, near London in the UK, the Lahore High Court has issued notices to the real estate dealers in Karachi and the Securities Exchange Commission of Pakistan to inform it if the investment (in the property in England) is safe.

The suo moto notice of the announcement, advertised in a national daily, was taken by Chief Justice Iftikhar Husain Chaudhry. The CJ referred the matter to Justice Nasim Sikandar, who is already seized of the case pertaining to the unauthorized foreign exchange banking by certain local companies without the State Bank of Pakistan’s permission.

Justice Nasim Sikandar on Tuesday issued notices to the SECP and the Asaish Builders and Estate Consultants, Clifton Road, Karachi, directing them to appear on Nov 18 to state if the affair was within the legal confines, clean and secure.

While referring the case to the single bench, the CJ observed that by inducing the people of Pakistan to own a landed property in the UK, the real estate agency concerned had attempted to invite foreign exchange investments from the general public.

This seemingly amounted to securing foreign currency deposits, which would, by all means, be insecure investments, the chief justice observed.

Elaborating the advertisers modus operandi in the referral order, the chief justice said the real estate dealers and consultants had fixed Rs500 as the price of the brochure, which induced the buyer that the payment of the down payment of 10 per cent of the plot’s price should directly be made to the company at Guilford, Surrey, for the issuance of the receipt of the money.

“The buyer is further induced to undertake legal documents of the deal from the firm in the UK on payment of 500 sterling pounds as the counsel fee.” This involved a substantial money at the earliest stage, whose security could not be ensured, he said.