Al-Qadir Trust case: Passports of Malik Riaz, Shehzad Akbar and others blocked

ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Interior has blocked the passport of property tycoon Malik Riaz, former special assistant to the former prime minister on accountability Shehzad Akbar and other accused in the Al-Qadir Trust case on the recommendation of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

Sources said the Interior Ministry has blocked the passports of Malik Riaz, his son Ali Riaz, Farhat Shehzadi alias Farah Gogi, Shahzad Akbar and other accused who have been declared by the accountability as proclaimed offender in the £190 million National Crime Agency (NCA) scam, commonly known as the Al-Qadir Trust case against former premier Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi.

The NAB had written a letter to the Ministry of Interior for blocking the passport of the accused, they said.

According to a statement issued by the NAB on January 21, the accountability court has declared Riaz is an absconder in the Al-Qadir Trust case and the government is approaching the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for the extradition of Riaz through legal channels.

It says that the anti-graft body has credible information about the fact that Riaz and his accomplices have not only illegally possessed/occupied state-owned land but also land belonging to private persons situated at Karachi, Takht-Parri, Rawalpindi and New Murree.

At present, NAB is conducting inquiries/ investigations against the owner of Bahria Town (Pvt) Ltd, Malik Riaz and the people associated with him for fraud, deceptive practices and cheating public at large.

Riaz is using these lands for developing housing societies allegedly without obtaining mandatory/required regulatory permissions/no objection certificates (NOCs) and has committed fraud against the State and the general public at large worth billions of rupees, it says.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2025