First Post Date: Sat, Feb 8, 2014 at 1:27 AMSenator Ishaq Dar’s son Ali Dar takes the Lamborghini Aventador LP 700-4 for the inaugural run.
The uniqueness of the car rental company lies in its array of niche car manufacturers and models of cars unavailable to the market. HDS Rent a Car owns the 2012 Lamborghini Aventador LP700-4, Mercedes Benz SLS 63 AMG Gullwing, apart from the more economy cars such as Peugeots and Renaults. Some of the many exotic, luxury and SUVs in the lineup are the the Ferrari Berlinetta F12 and the McLaren F1, and you can do the numbers yourself!The owners from a ‘poor and starving’ country Pakistan, where the average monthly income for an individual is $41, are offering such exotic services in Dubai, which even the local Emiratis fail to afford.
Madhu Bhindari, the Indian Billionaire who invested money in Dubai with Pakistani politicians.
* HDS Tower in Cluster of Jumeirah Lakes Tower, Dubai, is only one of
the 34 storey buildings that belongs to the mighty HDS Group. The News
Tribe learnt that several other buildings in Jumeirah Lake Towers, Business
Bay and International City, like the HDS Sunstar Towers, are also owned by
the millionaire brothers, surprisingly Pakistanis.*
* The owners of HDS Group, Ali Dar and Hasnain Dar, are none other than
the sons of finance minister of Pakistan, Senator Ishaq Dar. It’s worth
mentioning here that the elder son, Ali Dar, is also the son-in-law of
Pakistan Muslim Leagues’ leader, Mian Mohammad Nawaz Sharif. Apart from
several real estate ventures, The HDS Group had also launched HDS Rent a
Car, in Jumeriah Lake Towers, in July 2012. Senator Ishaq Dar’s son, Ali
Dar, takes the Lamborghini Aventador LP 700-4 for the inaugural run. The
uniqueness of the car rental company lies in its array of niche car
manufacturers and models of cars unavailable to the market. HDS Rent a Car
owns the 2012 Lamborghini Aventador LP700-4, Mercedes Benz SLS 63 AMG
Gullwing, apart from the more economy cars such as Peugeot and Renault.
Some of the many exotic, luxury and SUVs in the line up are the the
Ferrari Berlinetta F12 and the McLaren F1, and you can do the numbers
yourself! **The owners from a ‘poor and starving’ country Pakistan, where the** average
monthly income for an individual is $41, *
*are offering such** exotic services in Dubai, which even the local
**rich **Emiratis
fail to afford.** Madhu Bhindari, the Indian Billionaire who invested money in Dubai with
Pakistani politicians. Sources further told The News Tribe that the story
does not end here; another Finance Minister from the Nawaz Sharif
Government, made hundreds of real estate transactions with Madhu Bhindari,
an Indian billionaire entrepreneur, who is on a run-away from Dubai, after
losing 150 million dirhams in the 2008 crisis. However, the finance
minister’s buildings and investments are still there, earning a
hefty income. A Pakistani real estate agent, who claimed to carry out
transactions for a serving government officer in Sindh Government, told The
News Tribe that a lot of Pakistani bureaucrats and politicians have
properties worth millions in Dubai. “The son of a serving government
officer from Sindh government invested a huge amount of money in real
estate here in 2008, and I carried out transactions for him,” the agent
claimed. “Where are these politicians getting the money from?” asked a
frustrated Pakistani in Dubai, who came to know that the building he lived
in is owned by Ali and Hasnain Dar’s HDS Group. “If they have billions of
dollars and so much money, why is it not in Pakistan? These politicians
talk about the welfare of Pakistani people, but all they can think about
is themselves!”*
* Previously, Directors of Swiss Bank had stated that Pakistan has
around 97 billion dollars only in Swiss Banks. But, it seems that
Pakistani politicians and businessmen have more than 97 billion dollars
outside the Swiss Banks, invested in various countries and financial hubs
like Dubai.*
* According to the Swiss Bank directors, if the money is utilized for the
welfare of Pakistan and its people, then Pakistan can make tax free budget
for next 30 years, can create 60 million jobs, can carpet four lanes road
from any village to Islamabad, provide endless power supply, every citizen
can earn Rs. 20,000 salary for the next 60 years and there is no need to
take loans from IMF or World Bank. *
Dar says this is all trash, matter in high court; NAB to revive all corruption casesTHE NEWS*, PAKISTAN
LAHORE: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has decided in principle to revive all the corruption references pending against Nawaz Sharif, Shahbaz Sharif and other members of their family which had been adjourned indefinitely in December 2000 after the Sharifs signed an exile deal with the Musharraf regime and left Pakistan for Saudi Arabia.
According to well-informed NAB officials, of the three corruption references currently pending against Nawaz Sharif and his family members, NAB would first take up the case titled ‘State Vs Hudabiya Paper Mills (Pvt) Ltd’ in which nine members of the Sharif family are accused of committing money laundering to the tune of Rs642.743 million.
According to the NAB findings, the Sharif family members allegedly deposited ill-gotten money in fake accounts which were opened in other persons’ names and used the money from these accounts to pay off loans of the defaulting Sharif companies. Mian Muhammad Sharif, Nawaz Sharif, Shahbaz Sharif, Mian Abbas Sharif, Hussain Nawaz, Hamza Shahbaz, Mrs Shamim Akhtar (mother of Nawaz Sharif), Mrs Sabiha Abbas, Mrs Maryam Safdar (daughter of Nawaz Sharif) and the former finance minister of the Sharif cabinet, Ishaq Dar, are the main accused in the Hudabiya Paper Mills reference.
As per law, the NAB will have to file an application before the accountability court for reopening of the corruption references, which is set to open a Pandora’s box for the Sharif brothers, in view of a 43-page hand-written statement recorded by Senator Ishaq Dar and accusing the Sharifs of involvement in money laundering.
As per the statement which Ishaq Dar had recorded before a Lahore district magistrate on April 25, 2000, the Sharif brothers used the Hudaibya Paper Mills as cover for money laundering during the late 1990s. Dar’s statement was recorded as part of the Musharraf regime’s plans to file a money laundering reference against Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif. However, the reference was shelved after the Sharif family opted for self exile in 2000, once they came to know that their trusted Ishaq Dar has turned approver against them.
Ishaq Dar’s confessional statement against the Sharif brothers was reportedly recorded before a district magistrate in Lahore, after he was brought to the court from a jail by Basharat Shahzad, then serving as assistant director in the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).
NAB circles say Ishaq Dar’s deposition is an irrevocable statement because it had been recorded under section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC). Ishaq Dar now happens to be high-profile PML-N leader who has always been considered close to the Sharif brothers. Senator Ishaq Dar’s son, Ali Dar, is married to Nawaz Sharif’s daughter, Asma Nawaz.
Dar had confessed in his 43-page statement: “I opened two foreign currency accounts in the name of Sikandara Masood Qazi and Talat Masood Qazi with the foreign currency funds provided by the Sharif family in the Bank of America by signing as Sikandara Masood Qazi and Talat Masood Qazi. All instructions to the bank in the name of these two persons were signed by me under the orders of original depositors, namely Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif. The foreign currency accounts of Nuzhat Gohar and Kashif Masood Qazi were opened in Bank of America by Naeem Mehmood under my instructions (based on the directives of the Sharifs) by signing the same as Nuzhat Gohar and Kashif Masood Qazi”.
According to Dar’s confessional statement, besides these foreign currency accounts, a previously opened foreign currency account of Saeed Ahmed, a former director of First Hajvari Modaraba Company and close friend of Dar, and of Mussa Ghani, the nephew of Dar’s wife, were also used to deposit huge foreign currency funds provided by the Sharif family to offer them as collateral to obtain different direct and indirect credit lines. Dar had further conceded that the Bank of America, Citibank, Atlas Investment Bank, Al Barka Bank and Al Towfeek Investment Bank were used under the directives of the Sharif family. Interestingly enough, Dar also implicated himself by confessing before the district magistrate that he – along with his friends Kamal Qureshi and Naeem Mehmood – had opened fake foreign currency accounts in different international banks.
The News made frantic efforts to approach Ishaq Dar and after making several phone calls the brief response received from Mr Dar stated: “This is all rubbish. The Hudabiya Paper Mills case is nothing but trash. The matter is sub judice in the High Court and facts would be known to public in due course. All transactions were duly reported to the State Bank of Pakistan as per law of the land”.
However, a senior PML-N leader, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the credibility of a confessional statement recorded under pressure and coercion, and that too by the officials of a military regime, will always be doubtful and remain questionable.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik has already taken up the same money laundering case at a press conference in Islamabad on Saturday. Giving details about the scam, he said the Hudabiya Paper Mills Limited, owned by the Sharif family, entered into a leasing contract with M/s Al Towfeek Company for investment funds under the laws of the Cayman Islands on February 15, 1995 for lease of paper manufacturing machinery. The leasing price was $12.046 million. Rehman Malik said Shahbaz Sharif and Abbas Sharif and another, provided guarantee in writing to pay jointly and severally to the leasing company, all sums due against the Hudabiya Paper Mills under any agreement up to a maximum of $10 million with all profits and charges. On February 15, 1995, Shahbaz Sharif provided a further guarantee to pay on demand to the leasing company any such due against the Hudabiya Paper Mills up to a maximum of $12.046 million together with all profits and charges.
As the Hudabiya Paper Mills Limited failed to pay back the amount, M/s Al Towfeek Company served a demand on the Sharif family members on July 31, 1998 to repay the sum. However, all the three guarantors failed to honour their guarantees and to make payment on behalf of their company. Subsequently, on March 18, 1999, the High Court of Justice, Queens Bench Division (London) ordered the Sharifs to jointly pay a sum of $32.5 million (around Rs1.7 billion) to Al-Towfeek Company for Funds Ltd, the investment company from which they had taken a loan for Hudabiya Paper Mills Ltd. The London High Court passed the ex-parte order as the defendants – Hudabiya Paper Mills Ltd, Mian Mohammad Sharif, Shahbaz Sharif, and Abbas Sharif – had not defended themselves in the court.
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