List of High-End Dubai Properties Owned by Pakistanis
The roster encompasses political figures, former military personnel, bankers, and civil servants.
The latest revelations regarding property ownership in Dubai have spotlighted numerous notable Pakistanis. Among them are political figures, former military officials, bankers, and bureaucrats, as disclosed by data from the OCCRP’s Dubai Unlocked initiative.
The combined value of properties held by Pakistanis is estimated at approximately $11 billion.
Dubai Unlocked is a comprehensive project utilizing data from 2020 and 2022, offering insights into hundreds of thousands of properties in Dubai and their ownership details. However, properties registered under company names or located in commercial areas are not included in this analysis.
The data, obtained by the Centre for Advanced Defence Studies (C4ADS) and subsequently shared with Norwegian financial outlet E24 and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), has been subject to a six-month investigative effort involving journalists from 74 media outlets across 58 countries, revealing numerous convicted criminals, fugitives, and political figures with real estate holdings in Dubai. Pakistani media outlets The News and Dawn were part of this investigative collaboration.
Among those implicated in the property disclosures are the offspring of President Asif Ali Zardari, Hussain Nawaz Sharif, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi’s spouse, Sharjeel Memon and their relatives, Senator Faisal Vawda, Farah Gogi, Sher Afzal Marwat, four MNAs, and several MPAs from Sindh and Balochistan assemblies.
The list further includes late Gen Pervez Musharraf, former Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, over a dozen retired generals, a police chief, an ambassador, and a scientist, all of whom either directly or indirectly own properties in Dubai.
In addition to individuals, the network associated with Altaf Khanani, sanctioned by the US for money laundering, has emerged in the property records. Notably, individuals under sanctions, including Khanani’s son, daughter, brother, and nephew, are listed as property owners. Another figure, Hamid Mukhtar Shah, a Rawalpindi-based physician sanctioned by the US for his involvement in organ trafficking, is also listed as the owner of multiple properties.
Furthermore, the property records unveiled discrepancies in declarations made by Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, whose wife reportedly owns a property in Dubai not disclosed in his Senate election nomination papers submitted earlier this year.
According to the Property Leaks data, Naqvi’s wife possessed a five-bedroom villa in Arabian Ranches, earning a rental income of AED600,000 (Rs45m). The villa, purchased in August 2017 for AED4,347,888 (Rs329m), was sold in April 2023 for AED4,550,000 (Rs344m).
