RAWALPINDI, Feb 14: The Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) of Punjab and the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) have locked horns over absolving property tycoon Malik Riaz and his son Ali Riaz from the four-year-old land fraud case.

The Punjab prosecution department on Thursday filed a contempt of court case with Lahore High Court (LHC)’s Rawalpindi bench against NAB Chairman Fasih Bokhari for exonerating the two from the case.

On February 9, 2013, NAB declared the property tycoon and his son not guilty in the case involving 1,401 kanals near Rawat, Rawalpindi.

The bureau also sought permission from the accountability court for withdrawal of the references against the two out of a total 14 accused.

The case was registered with the ACE Punjab on November 4, 2009, against the accused persons for allegedly bribing revenue officials to get the 1,401 kanals of ‘shamilat’ or community land transferred to their names on fake documents.

After registering the case, ACE started investigation and then exonerated Malik Riaz and his son Ali Riaz in 2010. However, in March 2011, the Supreme Court while hearing the bail plea of one of the other accused persons observed that the ACE had cleared the influential beneficiaries and booked less important persons in the case. As a result, the investigation was re-started.

In November 2011, the NAB chairman directed the ACE to hand over all the record of the case to the bureau. However, the ACE challenged his order in the LHC.According to the contempt of court petition filed by Punjab Prosecutor General Sadaqat Ali Khan, the LHC on September 19, 2012, while deciding the ACE petition had observed that “the (ACE) investigation was conducted at least by four teams. After conclusion of the last investigation and in the light of report dated April 4, 2011, the challan was submitted against the accused persons, including Malik Riaz and his son. It is to be noted that the matter was re-investigated in the light of a Supreme Court order of August 25, 2011.”

The contempt petition alleged that the chairman NAB came to the rescue of Malik Riaz on November 14, 2011, after the LHC directed the tycoon to personally appear before the court. “The NAB chief tried to transfer the case from ACE to his bureau for clearing Malik Riaz through friendly prosecution,” it alleged.

It added that NAB moved an application under the National Accountability Ordinance for withdrawal of the reference.

“The disobedience and disregard on part of chairman NAB was intended to bring the authority of the LHC and the administration of law into disrepute and interfere with the process of law,” the petition said.

The petition requested the court for initiation of contempt proceedings against the NAB chairman for clearing Malik Riaz and his son because under the law he was supposed to prosecute both the property tycoon and his son at par with the other accused persons in the case.

When contacted by Dawn, Qaiser Qadeer Qureshi, the legal adviser to Bahria Town, said Malik Riaz did not commit any wrongdoing. He said the Punjab prosecution and the ACE wanted to implicate Malik Riaz in the false case but NAB had very rightly dropped the references against them.