As may be expected, several elected officials and Politically Exposed

Persons (PEPs) have a significant presence in the Dubai leaks, that cover
property ownership up to the spring of 2022. Many are household names;
some are no strangers to controversy; a few have been embroiled in mega
financial scandals.

Surprisingly, however, there are some Pakistani families (both political and
from the business world) who are widely known to have a base and family
homes in Dubai, but are conspicuous by their absence in the property leaks.
This underscores that the data, though robust, is neither a historic account
of property ownership nor is it a complete picture of all properties bought
by Pakistanis there. Many owners remain undetected, especially those who
purchased property via a lesser known third party, or lesser known
company.

Among the A-listers on the political landscape are President Zardari’s

children, two of whom are elected representatives. Bakhtawar Bhutto-
Zardari, a Dubai resident, and MNAs Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Aseefa
Bhutto Zardari are listed as owners of four properties between them.

A slew of elected officials and Politically Exposed Persons have invested in

Dubai real estate

The three siblings are joint owners of two apartments, one in Al Saffa and
another in Jumeirah. PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has declared
these two properties in his statement of assets and liabilities submitted to
the ECP. (According to the Election Act, 2017, each year before Dec 31,
every parliamentarian is required to submit a statement of their assets and
liabilities as well as that of their spouse and dependent children as held on
the last day of the preceding fiscal year.)

Ms Bakhtawar’s real estate portfolio also includes a four-bedroom

penthouse in 23 Marina, an 88-storey residential skyscraper that is among
the tallest such buildings in the world. Transaction data obtained by
Norwegian financial outlet E24 and the Organised Crime and Corruption
Reporting Project (OCCRP) reveals that the property was purchased in 2014
for AED 11,500,000 or $3,130,972 (calculated at the current exchange rate
of 3.6 dirham to a dollar). The Dubai Land Department (DLD) system shows
that it is still owned by Ms Bakhtawar, and is being rented. It should be
noted that as a non-resident Ms Bakhtawar is not liable to be taxed in
Pakistan on her overseas rental income.

The 23 Marina property in the leaks was mentioned in the JIT report of the
‘fake accounts’ case that pertained to 29 ‘suspicious’ accounts through
which Rs35 billion was alleged to have been laundered. The report stated
that Mr Zardari in a revised wealth statement to the FBR in January 2018
declared he had received it as a gift in the tax year 2014 and that he had
gifted the same property onwards in tax year 2016. The report also claims a
Karachi businessman, Abdul Ghani Majid, declared granting a gift of almost
exactly the same amount in his wealth statement for tax year 2014. It
alleges that he was a close associate of Mr Zardari. In the data, Mr Majid is
listed as owner of a five-bedroom villa at Emirates Hills, purchased in 2014.

It should be noted that in a 17-page response to the JIT report, Mr Zardari

denied any wrongdoing. “The statements recorded by witnesses and the
[accompanying] documents were not provided to us,” the reply stated. “The
JIT is being used as a means of political victimisation.”

The OCCRP contacted President Zardari and his children with requests for
comment. In a response through her lawyers, Aseefa Bhutto-Zardari said
that all assets owned by her in Dubai have been “duly declared to the
relevant authorities in Pakistan, including the ECP”.

In their response to Dawn’s questions, Mr Ghani’s lawyers said that their

client had declared his property at Emirates Hills to the FBR.“ With reference
to the allegations in the JIT report, they denied that Mr Ghani had ever
owned the 23 Marina property and that “the question of gifting it,
therefore, is incorrect and fallacious […]. [T]hat report has till date remained
a fiction of JIT’s imagination, including and not limited to the allegations
relating to this property”.

Surprisingly, there are some Pakistani families (both political and from the
business world) who are widely known to have a base and family homes in
Dubai, but are conspicuous by their absence in the property leaks. This
underscores that the data, though robust, is neither a historic account of
property ownership nor is it a complete picture of all properties bought by
Pakistanis there. Many owners remain undetected.
More PEPs connected with the so-called ‘fake accounts case’ as laid out by
the JIT show up as listed owners in the Dubai leaks. Among them are
Ghulam Abbas Zardari and Hamid Samoo. Two properties are linked with
his name in the Dubai leaks: a five-bedroom villa in Al-Furjan and a three-
bedroom apartment in Palm Jumeirah. Both these properties also find a
mention in the JIT report. Purchase and rental data obtained by E24 and
OCCRP show that the villa was purchased in 2014 for $1.36 million and will
have generated a rental income of $329,500 from 2015 till the current
contract ends later this year. Dawn has verified that Mr Abbas still owns the
Al-Furjan villa, while the apartment was sold some months ago.

Mr Samoo, meanwhile, is listed as owner of an apartment in the pricey

Hadaeq Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid area in late 2019/ early 2020 which
was bought for $1.89m and sold later that year. At present, he owns a two-
bedroom apartment in Global Golf Residence 2. It is further alleged in the
JIT report that he is employed as a driver and “has no other means of
subsistence”. Neither Mr Abbas nor Mr Samoo responded to a request for
comment.

Though the JIT allegations are yet to result in a conviction, the name of Haji
Haroon, director at H&H Exchange Pvt Ltd and former president Exchange
Companies Association of Pakistan, has cropped up as a vital cog in the
wheel in some of the biggest dirty money investigations in the country. And
there’s a long history. In September 2004, the State Bank suspended the
licence of his exchange company for having allegedly attempted to export
undeclared currency worth $1.72m from the country.

Among top five real estate investors

Appearing as listed owner of at least 250 properties in late 2019 and early
2020, Haji Haroon comes in the top five on the list of Pakistanis owning the
most real estate in Dubai in that period; he purchased at least two villas in
the emirate by early 2022. Among his investments was Silicon Heights, a
nine-storey residential building completed in 2011. Each unit in this
building sells for between $114,349 and $313,099. His other principal
investment in Dubai in late 2019/ early 2020 was the 42-unit Building 13 in
the Dunes Village apartment complex, where one unit is sold for an average
price of $122,517. It is not confirmed what properties he owns at present.
Haji Haroon has figured in the Axact saga, which involved the selling of fake
degrees and certifications across the world, although the allegations
against him went nowhere. He does not appear on any global sanctions list.
In July 2015, he was detained on charges of abetting political and business
personalities in laundering their money to send abroad. Haji Haroon
mysteriously disappeared that same year, reportedly at the hands of
intelligence personnel, and resurfaced some 11 months later. No FIR was
lodged over the disappearance. In 2018, investigations into the fake
accounts case dredged up Haji Haroon’s name again. The FIA in its report
alleged that he had used a UAE-based company for the transfer of funds.
That case has still not come to a close. By all accounts, he continues to do a
roaring business. Haji Haroon did not respond to a request for comments.

‘Underworld’s equivalent of Goldman Sachs’

In the history of money laundering, however, the massive hawala operation

run by the Pakistan-based currency traders Khanani and Kalia International
is considered the biggest of its kind: one news report described it as “the
underworld’s equivalent of Goldman Sachs”. Moving illicit funds for
organised crime groups including drug cartels and violent terrorist
organisations raked in an estimated turnover of between $14 billion to
$16bn annually. Altaf Khanani, the international face of the organisation,
was ultimately convicted and spent nearly six years in a US prison; he was
blacklisted by the US on money laundering charges along with his son
Obaid Khanani and nephew Hozaifa Khanani. In Dubai, a country where,
reportedly, investing in real estate with bags of cash raises few questions,
the Khananis are listed owners of a massive real estate portfolio. Mr Obaid
himself is linked to around 30 properties, while the family as a whole were
listed owners of 85 properties in early 2020, including around a dozen villas.
The exact number of properties still owned by Mr Khanani today is not
known, but Dawn’s preliminary investigation shows that Khanani family
members Mr Obaid, Anis Khanani and Abdul Qadir Khanani own at least
seven.

Atif Abdul Aziz Polani was also deeply embroiled in the same money
laundering operation. In fact, he was placed on the US sanctions list along
with the Khanani men for having acted as an “agent” “acting for or on
behalf of the Altaf Khanani organisation”. He is listed as the owner of eight
Dubai properties, including four villas.
Industrialist and PPP MNA Mirza Ikhtiar Baig is listed as owning around two
dozen properties, many of them jointly with his brother Ishtiaq Baig and
spouse. Dawn verified that at least 15 of these properties, ranging from
one- to three-bedroom apartments, are still listed as being owned by Mr
Baig by early this year, according to the DLD. The purchase value for the
still-owned properties ranges between $137,915 and $329,430. The two
siblings are chairman and vice chairman of the Baig Group which bills itself
as a multinational conglomerate with diversified interests in IT, textiles,
power generation and real estate. In response to questions, Mr Baig said,
“My company and properties… are declared in my tax returns and tax paid
on the rental income.”