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Pakistan plans to demand the extradition of billionaire real estate tycoon Malik Riaz Hussain from the United Arab Emirates, targeting powerful businessmen with ties to jailed former prime minister Imran Khan.
Pakistan’s anti-corruption watchdog, the National Accounts Office, said Hussain was being investigated for “charges of fraud, deceptive conduct and deceiving the entire population”.
Hussain, owner of Bahria Town, Pakistan’s largest private real estate developer, has sold land for which he did not have a title approval permit, the agency announced on Tuesday.
Analysts say the incident is a major setback for a man once considered politically untouchable, with Pakistan’s military and government now seeking to oust him from power in 2022 but remain popular. “This suggests that he wants to warn other influential people with ties to the United States,” he said.
Last week, Mr. Khan was found guilty of illegally taking over land for an educational institution from Mr. Hussein and sentenced to 14 years in prison. Khan and his lawyers claim the trial is a politically motivated attempt by the country’s military to remove him from politics.
In a statement posted on social media site X on Wednesday, Hussein suggested the extradition announcement was an attempt to pressure him to testify in court.
He said he had been subjected to “years of extortion, false cases and police greed” and had moved abroad because of his principled stance of “refusing to be a witness (a political pawn)”. He said he was forced to do so.
“No matter how much you oppress me, Malik Riaz will not testify!” the billionaire wrote. “The deplorable press release by NAB is actually another threat demand. I am resisting but I am sitting with a storm in my heart.”
The accounting authority said Pakistan would seek the extradition of Mr. Hussain, who has lived in exile in the UAE since 2023, and that investors in an Emirati apartment project he launched earlier this month were laundered. He warned that he was at risk of being charged with ring charges.
Michael Kugelman, a researcher at the Wilson Center in Washington, said the action against Hussain suggested a desire by Pakistani authorities to “demonstrate the credibility of the case against Khan.”
“But I think essentially it is widening the dragnet that is being pursued against all those with influence associated with Khan,” Kugelman added, noting that the Pakistani military is currently facing court-martial. He pointed to Faiz Hameed, a former spymaster who is said to be close to Khan. When Mr Khan was Prime Minister.
Through Bahria Town, Hussain has been building vast housing developments on the outskirts of Pakistan’s major cities since 1997, making them dream neighborhoods for ambitious middle-class people.
Earlier this month, he opened a new headquarters for Bahria Town subsidiary BT Properties, which is developing real estate in Dubai South, a planned suburb in the city’s rapidly urbanizing interior.
“We are here to not only enter Dubai’s real estate market, but to lead it,” Hussein said at the opening ceremony.
The UAE Foreign Ministry directed the country’s Ministry of Justice to comment on Pakistan’s extradition request, but the ministry did not immediately respond. Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not respond to requests for comment. A Bahria Town spokesperson cited Hussain’s social media posts as the company’s position.
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In 2019, the UK National Crime Agency reached an agreement with Hussein and his family to hand over £190m held in the country.
The payment concludes the NCA’s investigation into the funds. The agency did not disclose the allegations that led to the asset freezing order, but said the transaction was a civil, not criminal, matter and “does not constitute a finding of guilt.”
The £190 million was returned to Pakistan, but the current government claims Hussain was allowed to keep it in exchange for illegal land transfers to Khan. Mr. Khan and Mr. Hussain denied the accusations.
