ISLAMABAD
The government has decided to reinvestigate the National Insurance Company Limited (NICL) scam, as fresh evidence suggests that the company was mercilessly, robbed.
An official source said that the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has also ordered referring the matter to NAB and FIA, to apprehend the accused and recover the embezzled amount.
PAC was informed by the NICL management that a fresh valuation report rejects the perception that NICL did not sustain any loss in 2009 deal. It said that the value of the said property still had not reached the level it was purchased at.
A valuation report, carried out by Land Sterling, a reputable British chartered surveyor and property consultant, revealed that the actual price of the property at Dubai at the time of purchase was significantly less than the price paid by NICL in July 2009.
The valuation report revealed that even in December 2016, at the time of new assessment, and seven and a half year after the Dubai deal, the market value of the property was only Dirhams (AED) 42.7 million, which is still 42.2 percent less than 2009, purchase price of AED 74.05 million (Rs 1.63 billion).
The then Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhary had taken a suo motu notice of the deal after it was alleged that against a market price of AED 1,200 per square foot, the NICL management brought the office space in Dubai at a rate of AED 2,700 per square root, causing a loss of Rs 900 million.
The investigations confirmed that the NICL has paid an amount 159 per cent above the market value. It was revealed that the value of six office units in July 2009 was just AED 28.8 million equivalent to Rs 633 million. However, the then NICL management bought the office units for AED 74.05 million or Rs 1.63 billion thus causing a loss of roughly Rs 1 billion to the company.
It is important to mention that in December 2014, an accountability court had acquitted the former NICL Chairman Ayaz Khan Niazi and five others accused in the property scam. The court had acquitted the accused persons, Amin Qasim Dada, Muhammad Zahoor, Zahid Hussain, Navid Hasan Zaidi and Hur Gardezi, after a valuation report submitted that AED 74.05 million was the prevailing market price of the six flats bought in 2009.
