close
Saturday January 18, 2025

Property bought in wife’s name declared, says Naqvi on Dubai leaks

Defence minister Khawaja Asif terms property leaks a "flop episode"

By Web Desk
May 14, 2024
Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi (left) and Defence Minister Khawaja Asif. — APP/Reuters/File
Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi (left) and Defence Minister Khawaja Asif. — APP/Reuters/File

Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said Tuesday responded to the Dubai property leaks, saying that the realties purchased in Dubai under his wife’s name were declared with relevant authorities. 

“The Dubai property bought in my wife’s name since 2017 is fully declared and listed in tax returns. It was also declared in returns submitted to the Election Commission as caretaker CM of Punjab,” Naqvi, who also served as the interim provincial chief excecutive, said in a statement.

The security czar said that his wife bought this property in 2017 but sold that out a year ago.

"The property was sold a year ago, and a new property was purchased recently with the proceeds," he added.

'Nothing new in it': Khawaja Asif

Reacting to Dubai leaks, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif censured the leaked property records, saying that there was “nothing new in it” and termed it a “remake of a flopped old movie”.

In a post on X (former Twitter), the senior politico claimed that those prominent personalities — Pervez Musharraf, Shaukat Aziz, Faisal Vawda and many others named in the fresh property leaks — had also been named in Panama leaks which they did not deny.

He added that former premier Nawaz Sharif had also been targeted despite having no connection with Panama papers.

In another tweet, Asif further alleged that the "flop episode" was seemingly a planned attempt to divert attention from the “real culprits”, who were probably behind Dubai leaks’ funding.

He predicted “more big news” were likely to hit media as soon as they were coming to a conclusion.

The statements came after the shocking revelations regarding several prominent Pakistanis' ownership of assets in the Gulf emirate.

The global collaborative investigative journalism project has revealed the list of  property owners in Dubai.

The list includes political figures, globally sanctioned individuals, alleged money launderers and criminals. Pakistanis have also been identified on the list and their combined value has been estimated at around $11 billion.

More than a dozen retired military officials and their families, as well as bankers and bureaucrats, own properties in upscale Dubai areas, according to data revealed by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project’s (OCCRP) Dubai Unlocked project.

The project — 'Dubai Unlocked' — based on the data that provides a detailed overview of hundreds of thousands of properties in Dubai and information about their ownership or usage, largely from 2020 and 2022, surfaced on Tuesday.

Properties purchased in the name of companies and those that are in commercial areas are not part of this analysis.