ISLAMABAD/LAHORE, Feb 22: The administration of Bahria Town (BT) housing scheme kept mum on Friday despite a damaging clarification from Abu Dhabi Group (ADG) that there was no agreement between them for a $45 billion investment in Pakistan’s housing sector.

A large advertisement published in national dailies on behalf of ADG said the management of BT floated a misleading news item on Feb 15 claiming that BT and ADG had signed an agreement under which the group will invest $45bn in the housing sector and build the world’s tallest building in Karachi.

A number of attempts were made to contact owners and officials of BT, but they did not come out with their group’s reply to the ADG disclaimer.

However, Col (retd) Tanveer Ahmed, personal secretary to the owner of BT, Malik Riaz, did talk on the matter and challenged authenticity of the advertisement. He claimed that the advertisement was got published by some people who were against BT, and not by the management of ADG.

“There was no telephone number or e-mail address in the advertisement. This shows that it was fake,” he said.

He, however, had no reply to a query that if the advertisement was fake, why the BT administration had not come on the media with its version.

Attempts were also made to seek comment from the BT spokesperson, Ms Nida, but she refused to speak on the subject. She attended a phone call and assured that she would call back soon with an official version, but neither did she call back nor attend any call later.

The advertisement published in newspapers on Friday said a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding was entered into by Dhabi Constructing Establishment, a business unit based in Abu Dhabi, which is wholly owned by Sheikh Nahayan Mabarak Al Nahayan, and not by ADG. The MoU, it added, was simply an indication of interest by Dhabi Constructing Establishment to provide technical support and assistance to BT for the project — as, when and if appropriate commercial terms and conditions were agreed upon. The clarification said since the discussion between the parties did not reach any conclusion, the MoU had been cancelled.