RAWALPINDI — A District and Sessions Judge of the Anti-Corruption Court in Rawalpindi has sentenced four people, including two revenue officials, to a total of 96 years of rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs 5.8 million for their involvement in multiple cases of cheating, manipulation, and fraudulent ownership paper forgery against a prominent British Pakistani family.
The Anti-Corruption Court Special Judge Ali Nawaz has convicted Aurangzeb Patwari, Malik Muhammad Safdar, Muhammad Almas Abbasi, Haq Nawaz Abbasi, and Raja Shahid Ahmed for fraudulently occupying lands and using fraudulent means to forge papers of British Pakistani businessman Nisar Ahmad Afzal. The convicted individuals, who were previously on bail, have now been sent to Central Jail Adiyala after the judgment.
The fraud case was registered in November 2021 in Rawalpindi by Hamzah Afzal of Edgbaston in Birmingham. His father, Nisar Afzal, was the victim of the scam on their lands in Rawalpindi District’s Rajar Tehsil after officials of the land record of Revenue Estate – Aurangzeb Patwari, Malik Muhammad Safdar – criminally conspired to forge the land record and transfer it to three men with powerful connections: Almas Abbasi s/o Mohammad Aslam, Haq Nawaz Abbasi s/o Kudadad Khan, and Raja Shahid S/o Raja Bashir, as beneficiaries of the embezzlement, in connivance with each other and with officials of the land record.
The complainants had applied to the director-general of Anti-Corruption Lahore (Punjab). Anti-Corruption Lahore, in a forensic report prepared by Punjab Forensic Science Agency (PFSA), found that the accused had tampered with the land registry record, forged signatures, and added extra pages to the original land record in an attempt to defraud the British Pakistani family. The court was informed that the mutation of the land was not properly verified, as required by law, and that names were seemingly inserted subsequently. Raja Shahid, Almas Abbasi, and Haq Nawaz initially denied involvement in the forgery scheme, but the forensic investigation proved their involvement in tampering with papers and fraud to unlawfully acquire valuable land worth approximately three billion Rupees (around £10 million).
Anti-Corruption Court Special Judge Ali Nawaz sentenced the accused to a total of 96 years in prison on various counts of criminal misconduct, forgery, fraud, alteration, and use of forged documents for personal gain. Raja Shahid was sentenced to 17 years in prison and fined 1.2 million Rs, Haq Nawaz Abbasi was sentenced to 17 years in prison and fined 1.2 million Rs, Aurangzeb Patwari was sentenced to 31 years in prison and fined 1.7 million Rs on five counts of criminal misconduct, and Muhammad Safdar Naib Tehsildar was sentenced to 31 years in prison and fined 1.7 million Rs. The primary accused, Almas Abbasi, passed away during the trial in December 2023.
The judgment highlighted discrepancies in the mutation entries and identified forged documents. It noted that Nisar Afzal, the victim of the fraudulent scheme, could pursue criminal proceedings against the convicts and seek compensation through civil court.
Nisar Afzal expressed relief at the verdict and described the case as a form of financial terrorism. He mentioned that his family had faced threats from the accused, leading some members to relocate to the UK. Afzal emphasized the importance of protecting overseas Pakistanis from similar injustices. He also mentioned that a previous case of mortgage fraud against him, brought by Britain’s Serious Fraud Office, had been dropped due to lack of evidence.
