Court observes NAB failed to produce substantial evidence against UK-Pakistani businessman
The Islamabad High Court has set aside freezing orders of several properties owned by the British Pakistani businessman Nisar Ahmed Afzal and cleared him of £60m graft case observing that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had demonstrated high-handedness in several ways.
The case was instituted on the request of the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA in £60M alleged Birmingham Mortgage fraud case but Pakistan’s anti-graft agency failed to substantiate evidence against him.
The IHC’s Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani and Justice Sardar Ejaz Ishaq Khan in their judgment noted that several properties of Nisar Afzal and family members were frozen in Islamabad by the NAB in November 2021 for the purpose of recovery but the NAB failed to file a reference or furnish any evidence against the British Pakistani family.
NAB had seized Afzal’s properties at a time when the UK’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) had already announced in November 2021 it had dropped the investigation into Nisar Afzal bringing the matter to a close. According to SFO, there was no realistic prospect of a successful conviction, primarily due to lack of evidence. However, the NAB authorities froze Afzal’s assets in 2021 on the UK government’s request which was sent originally in 2017. In 2021 the original case was already over.
The NAB froze around eight properties of Afzal which included those properties in Islamabad as well which were purchased long before the alleged offence in the UK.
The NCA through British High Commission Islamabad had lodged a complaint with Chairman NAB, alleging that two real brothers namely Nisar Ahmaed Afzal and Saghir Ahmed Afzal and others were involved in a £60 million Mortgage Fraud in UK in the year 2004-2006 and that Nisar Ahmad Afzal however fled away from UK to
Pakistan along with part proceeds of £26 million which were received in Pakistan bank accounts of Afzal’s family members and subsequently routed/layered and brought in their personal utilization to acquire properties. However, the IHC found that the NAB did nothing from 2017 onwards and moved to freeze properties in September 2021 and since then didn’t transmit the cases to Court of Session Judge or any other court under the law, nor it concluded the investigation report.
The court noted, “Even we have confronted the respondent NAB as to whether the matter was concluded to be settled by any court of law but nothing concrete has been demonstrated.”
The freezing orders cannot continue when the principal offences in terms of the National Accountability Ordinance 1999 stand repealed and “this is not the mandate of law to put any person under caution or his properties be frozen forever, even when no complaint has been filed in court of law nor any prosecution has been initiated from last more than seven years, such aspect clearly demonstrate the highhandedness on part of respondent authorities, who though conceded that the EBM in their meeting held on 14.11.2023 recommended that investigation be closed at NAB’s end and be referred to the FIA, it further said. The judges criticized the NAB for its conduct and culture of unfairly victimizing people.
Such aspect left nothing in favour of NAB authorities who cannot hide behind their previous authority to proceed against the Petitioner (Nisar Afzal) when the entire issue has been closed at their end. Therefore, if FIA authorities intend to proceed against the petitioner they are at liberty to proceed with the matter under the law and if they have any powers to put the properties under caution or able to freeze, they may do so within the four corners of law but that is readily not available at present as so far the matter is not transmitted to FIA authorities, the court observed.
