ISLAMABAD – The Supreme Court ordered Bahria Town Chairman Malik Riaz todeposit Rs5 billion as security within two weeks in a case related tohousing project in Karachi.

A three-judge SC bench, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) MianSaqib Nisar, ordered that the peronal propertiy of Malik Riaz, his wife andhis sons will be taken into official custody. The CJP also ordered MalikRiaz to deposit Rs5 billion as security Rs5 billion within two weeks.

During the hearing, the chief justice directed Riaz to submit an attestedaudit report in the court every month.

However, the chief justice in its order made it incumbent upon Bahria townKarachi to deposit twenty percent of the amount it will receive from theallottees in the apex court’s account. The ramaining eighty percent shouldbe exclusively spent on development work in Bahria town Karachi project.

The court also directed the Bahria Town Chief Executive and Chairman MalikRiaz to deposit five billion rupees in the apex court’s account withinfifteen days.

Earlier in yesterday hearing, the CJP asked Bahria Town chairman to keep inmind his afterlife as Riaz enumerated his contributions that have‘transformed a third world country into a first world state’. “A city thatwas infested with Kalashnikovs has been turned into an epitome ofdevelopmental projects,” Riaz said in a reference to Karachi.

Riaz appealed that the court should restrain from passing a verdict thatwould affect its employees, adding that the National Accountability Bureau(NAB) has already cleared the housing society. He also requested the courtto stop NAB from further investigation until a verdict is out.