By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s premier anti-corruption agency said on Saturday it had frozen $4.5 million held in foreign bank accounts linked to the chief executive of Bahria Town, the country’s most prominent real estate developer, and his wife — the latest salvo in a sweeping money-laundering investigation that has ensnared one of Pakistan’s most powerful business dynasties.
The National Accountability Bureau said it had attached two accounts at Silver Bank in Mauritius belonging to Ahmed Ali Riaz, the son of Bahria Town founder Malik Riaz Hussain and the company’s chief executive, and to Mubashra Ali Malik, Riaz’s wife. The bureau alleged that the funds originated as crime proceeds in Pakistan, were transferred first to the United Arab Emirates and then laundered onward to Mauritius through an illicit hawala and hundi network — informal money transfer systems that operate outside conventional banking channels.
“These funds were initially transferred to the UAE and subsequently laundered to Mauritius, where the crime proceeds originating from Pakistan were placed in joint bank accounts,” NAB said in a statement.
The bureau said it has launched legal proceedings through the Pakistani foreign office and described the forfeiture and repatriation process as having reached an “advanced stage” under the country’s Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2010. The announcement positions the asset freeze as part of a broader cross-border enforcement effort, with NAB invoking international cooperation mechanisms to recover what it characterizes as illicitly exported capital.
Bahria Town, which Malik Riaz built into Pakistan’s largest private real estate developer over several decades, has long operated at the intersection of business and political influence. Riaz himself — widely regarded as one of Pakistan’s wealthiest individuals — faces multiple investigations by NAB into allegations that the company improperly used state land for private housing projects. He has consistently denied any wrongdoing, characterizing the legal pressure against him as politically motivated.
His son Ahmed Ali Riaz, who has helmed the company’s operations, was declared a proclaimed offender in 2024 in connection with the Al-Qadir Trust corruption case — a politically charged matter that has rippled far beyond the family. That case centers on allegations that former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his wife received land from Malik Riaz as a bribe for illegal favors during Khan’s government, which lasted from 2018 to 2022. Khan, who was swept from power in 2022 and has since faced a cascade of legal proceedings, has denied the allegations, as has Riaz.
The stakes of the broader investigation are considerable. NAB Chairman Lt. Gen. (retd.) Nazir Butt said in April that Interpol had issued Red Notices for both Malik Riaz and his son at the bureau’s request — formal international alerts that ask law enforcement agencies worldwide to provisionally detain an individual pending extradition. Butt has publicly vowed to return Ahmed Ali Riaz from the UAE, where he is currently based, to face charges in Pakistan. The bureau has pegged the total value of the alleged money-laundering scheme at more than 700 billion Pakistani rupees, or roughly $2.5 billion.
Saturday’s asset freeze, NAB said, “reaffirms NAB’s commitment to pursuing illicit assets across jurisdictions and securing their recovery through international cooperation.”
The Bahria Town cases represent one of the most consequential corruption investigations in recent Pakistani legal history, touching on the country’s real estate sector, its political elite, and now its offshore financial connections.
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