ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has categorically rejected media reports about property in Dubai.
Spokesperson of the minister said that Dar did not own any property outside Pakistan. The statement issued after a local newspaper alleged that the finance minister owned properties in Dubai but did not mention it in tax returns. Giving details, the spokesperson said Dar purchased a house, E-144, in 2005, with a down payment of 900,300 dirhams and obtained a loan for balance payment from M/s Tamweel LLC – a public listed mortgage loan provider in the UAE, through Islamic financing of eight years (96 instalments). After paying 74 instalments to M/s Tamweel LLC, he said Dar gifted the said house to his sons – Ali Mustafa Dar and Mujtaba Hasnain Dar – in May 2011 with the condition that they will pay the remaining 22 instalments where after M/s Tamweel LLC will arrange to transfer the house in the joint names of the two brothers and transfer was made accordingly. He said the minister has declared all transactions – from down payment and including gifting of the house – in his annual tax returns filed with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in the respective years.
Referring to L-53 Emirates Hills property, the spokesperson said the minister entered into a purchase contract for the said property on August 3, 2005, under which he was to pay 7,066,000 dirhams to Emirates Hills Phase I LLC in four instalments from August 3, 2005 to May 3, 2006.
However, after paying one instalment, and before the next instalment had become due, he sold the property through a legal agreement, signed on October 15, 2005, whereby the remaining instalments were to be paid by the new owner (purchaser). Following this agreement, he does not have any right or claim to the property, he explained.
“Finance Minister Ishqa Dar does not own any of the properties mentioned above. In fact he never
“Thus it is evident that Finance Minister Dar does not own any of the above properties. In fact he never fully owned these two properties as he was paying instalments,” the spokesperson added.
