Who Owns What In Dubai: Here Is Complete Detail Of Prominent Pakistani Figures

The total value of properties owned by these Pakistanis is estimated to be around $11 billion.

LAHORE: (UrduPoint/UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News-May 15^th, 2024) Several notable Pakistanis have been identified in the latest leaks revealing details of individuals owning properties in Dubai's upscale areas. The list includes political figures, former military officials, bankers, and bureaucrats, according to data from the OCCRP’s Dubai Unlocked project.

The total value of properties owned by these Pakistanis is estimated to be around $11 billion.

The Dubai Unlocked project is based on comprehensive data from 2020 and 2022, offering detailed insights into hundreds of thousands of properties in Dubai and their ownership. This analysis excludes properties bought in the name of companies and those in commercial areas.

The data was obtained by the Centre for Advanced Defence Studies (C4ADS), a Washington, DC-based non-profit organization. It was then shared with Norwegian financial outlet E24 and the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), which coordinated a six-month investigative effort with reporters from 74 media outlets in 58 countries. This investigation uncovered numerous convicted criminals, fugitives, and political figures who have owned real estate in Dubai. Pakistani partners in the project included The news and Dawn.

The list of Pakistanis includes the children of President Asif Ali Zardari, Hussain Nawaz Sharif, the wife of Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, Sharjeel Memon and his family members, Senator Faisal Vawda, Farah Gogi, Sher Afzal Marwat, four MNAs, and half a dozen MPAs from the Sindh and Balochistan assemblies.

Also featured are the late Gen Pervez Musharraf, former prime minister Shaukat Aziz, over a dozen retired generals, a police chief, an ambassador, and a scientist—all of whom owned properties either directly or through their spouses and children.

In 2014, President Asif Ali Zardari received foreign property as a gift, which he declared in 2018 before gifting it to someone else. Abdul Ghani Majid, a business tycoon co-accused with Zardari in a fake accounts case, declared in his 2014 wealth statement a gift of Rs329 million without specifying its type or recipient. The JIT found a memo about the 2014 purchase of a penthouse in Dubai, now revealed to have been gifted to Zardari, who then gifted it to his daughter.

The data also lists the Chief Financial Officer of Omni Group, Aslam Masood, and his wife as owners of several properties. One such property was purchased for AED1,060,626 (Rs80 million) in March 2013. Another property owner is Sohrab Dinshaw, who bought a villa in 2015 for AED1,271,888 (Rs96 million).

The leaks also disclose that Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi’s wife owns a Dubai property not declared in his Senate election nomination papers submitted in March. She owns a five-bedroom villa in Arabian Ranches, which generated AED600,000 (Rs45 million) in rental income.

This villa, bought in August 2017 for AED4,347,888 (Rs329 million), was sold in April 2023 for AED4,550,000 (Rs344 million) according to records.

Questions were sent to all mentioned individuals (except the deceased Aslam Masood), but none responded.

The Altaf Khanani network, sanctioned by the US for money laundering, also appears on the list, with his son, daughter, brother, and nephew owning several properties in Dubai, three of whom are facing sanctions.

Besides it, Hamid Mukhtar Shah, a Rawalpindi-based physician sanctioned by the US for involvement in illegal organ transplants, is listed as owning multiple properties.