Faisal Vawda, PTI leader and Federal Minister for Water Resources, has been in the news often over the last year, from being photographed on the Line of Control to stating that Pakistan will experience a “burst of jobs in 7-10 days.” While he may have been able to brush away all of those, he will find it difficult to brush away the latest story by investigative journalist, Ahmad Noorani.
According to Noorani’s latest story “Meet the minister who kept Rs465 millions’ properties in his servant’s name,” “Despite having no known source of income, Fesal Vawda has made hundreds of millions of rupees benami transactions by selling two commercial properties which he kept in the name of his employee Sher Nawaz Khan.”
The questions posed by Noorani in his report are “Who is Sher Nawaz Khan who sold his properties worth Rs465 million to Emirates Global Islamic Bank Limited in 2006. According to court documents, Vawda approached bank with power of attorney of Sher Nawaz and informed he was real owner of properties while Sher Nawaz was his employee. Given his income as per FBR record, Vawda couldn’t purchase such properties worth hundreds of millions of rupees. Vawda also purchased properties in different countries of the world after this transaction while his tax continued to be zero until 2015 2018.”
For details please read the story below
“Sher Nawaz Khan while giving his version admitted that he had been an employee of Vawda in his business till last year. An official communication of minister for water resources available with Daily Business World (DBW) shows that Sher Nawaz Khan is still associated with Fesal Vawda. Sher Nawaz Khan bearing CNIC No. 42501-4069125-9 owned two commercial properties No.22-C and No.24-C, Phase V, Khayaban-e-Tanzeem, D.H.A. Mr Sher Nawaz signed an agreement with a private commercial bank, Emirates Global Islamic Bank Limited, to sell these two properties on June 08, 2006 at the price of Rs465 million. However, once the agreement was done between Mr Sher Nawaz Khan and the private bank, Mr. Vawda came in the front, approached the said bank and presented a power of attorney given to him by Sher Nawaz Khan (his employee at that time) to deal all the matter related to these properties. In a later litigation before Sindh High Court (SHC) on the issue of sale-purchase agreement of these two properties, the said bank submitted before the SHC that Vawda informed the bank that Sher Nawaz Khan was his employee and he (Vawda) was the real and beneficial owner of these Properties. Copy of the power of attorney is available with DBW.”
“Fesal Vawda Group (FVG) Construction — a company which Vawda proudly introduce as the main source of his income is so small that it is neither registered with SECP as a company nor it is listed with Association of Builders and Developers (ABAD) in Karachi. Official record shows that his company paid zero sales tax from 2007 to 2013 while its sales tax account is suspended by the FBR since July 2013. His firm M/s Fesal Vawda Construction is registered with the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and file tax return in the category of individuals. According to FBR record, Vawda himself became taxpayer in 2004. In his private circles, Vawda use to discuss the tax he paid after 2016 and the foreign properties he declared only in 2018 after hiding them for many years. The most important point is that all the business transactions including purchase of many properties in Pakistan and in different countries of the world were made many years before when his declared sources of income were almost none and he was paying nominal or zero tax to tax authorities here in Pakistan.”
For more details and documents please check the entire story by Noorani here https://dailybw.com/2019/05/21/meet-the-minister-who-kept-rs465-millions-properties-in-his-servants-name/
