KARACHI: The Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) has lodged a criminal case against real estate tycoon Malik Riaz and his son, Ali Malik, for allegedly submitting three “dishonoured” cheques for a collective over Rs182 million to get building regulator’s permission to advertise their Bahria Town Karachi project, it emerged on Monday.

The FIR No 681/2023 was lodged at the Gulshan-i-Iqbal police station regarding alleged “concealment, misrepresentation and depositing cheques which were later dishonoured” during the process of obtaining a provisional no-objection certificate (NOC) from the SBCA for advertising and sale of its Bahria Town Karachi project.

The police invoked Sections 489-F (dishonestly issuing a cheque), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 109 (abetment) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code in the FIR.

According to the FIR, SBCA deputy director Zaheer Husain Qureshi stated in his written complaint that the owners of Bahria Town Pvt. Ltd — Malik Riaz and his son Ali Riaz Malik — applied to the SBCA director general for sale and advertisement of the project through authorised proprietors, Bahria Town Karachi, on the basis of approval of layout plan of subject land (MDA/MPD/Deh-449/2022/399) on June 13, 2022.

It said that the BTK owners, through their representatives, submitted five post-dated cheques in favour of the SBCA but three of the cheques had bounced.

“It is, therefore, requested to initiate a lawful action in accordance with law,” the complainant stated.

Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2023