ISLAMABAD: The National Account­ability Bureau (NAB) on Friday submitted a report to the accountability court of Islamabad, reaffirming allegations against Senate Deputy Chairman Saleem Mandviwalla in connection with the fake bank accounts case.

Though the report was submitted to substantiate the role of Tariq Mehmood, the alleged front man of the Mandviwalla Builders and Developers in the case, it focused on Mr Mandviwalla, accusing him of conniving with Mr Mehmood in the purchase of shares of Mangla View Resort.

NAB has alleged that former chairman of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) “Aijaz Haroon and Saleem Mandviwalla, in connivance with each other, embezzled the government land through illegal and fraudulent allotment, and received illegal and unlawful gains of Rs144.2 million from fake bank accounts namely A-One International and Lucky International under the garb of business deal or property transaction with Abdul Ghani Majeed, the chief executive officer of Omni Group”.

Anti-graft watchdog submits report to accountability court in fake accounts case

The report further claimed that the purported property/business deal was coordinated by accused Saleem Mandviwalla using his brother Nadeem Hakeem Mandviwalla sole proprietorship namely Mandviwalla Builders and Developers and received Rs64.2m out of the total crime proceeds of Rs144.2m. The same was misappropriated through the purchase of leasehold of a trust namely Dewar-i-Hadayyah, Karachi, by accused Saleem Mandviwalla.

NAB further claimed in the report that “Mehmood is an employee/front man working as a manager of the Mandviwalla Builders and Developers and he held around Rs3.1 million shares of M/s Mangla View Resort Private Limited in his name on behalf of accused Saleem Mandviwalla and Nadeem Hakeem Mandviwalla. He is salaried person and has no financial worth to purchase shares worth Rs30 million”.

The Senate deputy chairman had at a press conference on Dec 7 accused NAB of violating human rights.

Mr Mandviwalla, who belongs to the opposition Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), had said that “now NAB officials will be taken to task for keeping the assets beyond means”.

“I am going to approach every ambassador in Pakistan, every human rights committee of every parliament I know in the world to inform them about human rights violations being committed by NAB,” he had said, adding: “I will ensure that NAB is blacklisted internationally.”

Published in Dawn, December 19th, 2020