The Islamabad High Court has set-aside freezing orders on several properties of British Pakistani businessman Nisar Ahmed Afzal while observing that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had demonstrated high-handedness in its dealing in several ways – in a case that started on request of the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) related to £60M alleged Birmingham Mortgage fraud case.
The IHC’s Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani and Justice Sardar Ejaz Ishaq Khan 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 – on behalf of the UK authorities – but the agency failed to file a reference and failed to furnish any evidence of criminality against the British Pakistani family. Interestingly, the NAB seized Afzal’s properties after UK’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) announced in November 2021 it has dropped the investigation into Nisar Afzal bringing the matter to a close as there was no realistic prospect of a successful conviction, primarily due to lack of evidence. However, NAB authorities in Pakistan froze Afzal’s assets on a request by the UK govt which was sent originally in 2017 and the NAB accepted it in November 2021 when 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.
