ISLAMABAD, Dec 22 (APP): The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday ordered the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to defreeze the properties of British Pakistani businessman Nisar Ahmed Afzal in the £60M Birmingham Mortgage fraud case.
The IHC bench comprising Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani and Justice Sardar Ijaz Ishaq Khan heard the case initiated on the request of the National Crime Agency (NCA) of the United Kingdom and announced the verdict.
The court noted that the freezing orders could continue as the principal offences in terms of the National Accountability Ordinance 1999 stood repealed.
“This is not the mandate of law to put any person under caution or his properties be freezed forever, even when no complaint has been filed in court of law nor any prosecution has been initiated for last more than seven years,” it observed.
The court, in its order, said that several properties of Nisar Afzal and family members were frozen in Islamabad by NAB in November 2021 for the purpose of recovery – on behalf of the UK authorities – but the Agency failed to file a reference and furnish any evidence of criminality against the British Pakistani family.
“Therefore, if FIA authorities intend to proceed against the petitioner they are at liberty to proceed with the matter under the law,” it said.
On August 7, 2017, the NCA through the British High Commission Islamabad had lodged a complaint with the NAB chairman, alleging that two real brothers namely Nisar Ahmed Afzal and Saghir Ahmed Afzal and others were involved in a £60 million Mortgage Fraud in the UK in the year 2004-2006 and that Nisar Ahmad Afzal fled away from the UK to Pakistan along with part proceeds of £26 million which were received in bank accounts there.
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