ISLAMABAD
Following the revelations regarding a high-profile property purchase scam involving the National Insurance Company Limited (NICL), company’s Chief Executive Officer Captain (retd) Jamil Akhtar Khan has now asked the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to reopen billion rupees worth case.
Sources in the Commerce Ministry informed this scribe that NICL chief has recommended reopening of an old high-profile property purchase scam following the revelations of a fresh valuation report conducted by Land Sterling – a British chartered surveyor and property consultant that provides valuation services for commercial and residential property in the Middle East and North Africa. They said the courts were misled to save some high-profile figures of the company (NICL).
Available copy of the fresh valuation report disclosed to Pakistan Today shows that the NICL had purchased the property in Dubai some eight years ago and paid an amount 159 per cent above the market value.
The Dubai property is comprised of six office units of various sizes with a gross area of 27,429 square feet and total sellable area of 22,024 square feet in Liberty House, Dubai International Financial Centre, around 10 km from Dubai International Airport.
As per the report, in July 2009, the value of six office units was just 28.8 million dirhams (AED), equivalent to Rs 633 million approximately. However, the then NICL management had bought these office units for AED 74.05 million, or Rs 1.63 billion, causing a loss of roughly Rs 1 billion in just one deal.
The Land Sterling valuation report further revealed that even in December 2016 – seven and a half years after the Dubai deal – the market value of the property was only AED 42.765 million, which is still 42.2 per cent lesser than the 2009 purchase price.
Earlier, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had investigated the deal. In December 2014, an accountability court had acquitted former NICL Chairman Ayaz Khan Niazi and five others in the property scam. The court had acquitted the accused persons after a report was submitted to the court that AED 74.05 million was the prevailing market price of the six flats in 2009. The other accused persons were Amin Qasim Dada, Muhammad Zahoor, Zahid Hussain, Navid Hasan Zaidi, and Hur Gardezi.
It is pertinent to mention here that the company (NICL) had bought 27,429 square feet in total, which Land Sterling’s report suggests, should have had a valuation of only AED 1,094.49 per square foot in 2009.
Furthermore, the Supreme Court of Pakistan had taken Suo Motu notice of the case after it was alleged that against a market price of AED 1,200 per square foot, the NICL management bought the office space in Dubai at AED 2,700 per square foot, causing Rs 900 million loss.
