Judge Mazhar Minhas's report on Bahria Town: what is known, and what is not

This is BRACE's update, written in November 2026, to our article of March 2025, The Tale of Judge Mazhar Minhas's Report on Bahria Town. That article stays as first published, and the editor's note above it lists its corrections.

BRACE has not seen the report. We searched for it and did not find a copy. Everything below about its contents comes from the press reports and court papers linked here. What it says remains allegation unless a court has found otherwise, and those named deny it.

What the report is

• Dawn reported on 17 February 2010 that a 115-page judicial inquiry by District and Sessions Judge Mazhar Hussain Minhas had been submitted to the Supreme Court. Dawn said it concerned Bahria Town, the Defence Housing Authority (DHA) and Habib Rafique, about 42 complaints, and more than 29,650 kanals said to have been acquired by illegal means (Dawn).
• Dawn's comment of 21 February 2010 said the Supreme Court ordered the inquiry after a killing in 2008 that arose from a land dispute (Dawn).
• Families from Salkhtar in Murree linked the inquiry to their own complaint about land for Bahria Golf City, and said in June 2012 that it had upheld them (Dawn).
• The date is unsettled. BBC Urdu, in February 2025, says the Supreme Court had the inquiry held in 2010 and calls it a 2011 report (BBC Urdu). Dawn had described a report as already submitted by February 2010. We cannot tell from these accounts whether they describe one report or more than one stage of it.

What it is reported to say

These are BBC Urdu's and Dawn's accounts of the report, not BRACE's findings.

• That Bahria Town and DHA together carried out the "clearing" of the Takht Pari forest, near Rawalpindi, and that about 1,200 kanals of that forest were taken into Bahria Town by force (BBC Urdu).
• That when a forest officer wrote to the Rawalpindi police about this on 20 September 2005, the police acted against the officer who complained and not against the company (BBC Urdu).
• BBC Urdu spoke to the retired judge. He said that Malik Riaz appeared and recorded a full statement, and that DHA at first said the matter was not its concern and then sent a representative (BBC Urdu).

What the courts did

• 25 June 2012. A Supreme Court bench led by Justice Jawwad S. Khawaja said the police had not seen the inquiry, and ordered the Director General of the FIA to look into it. Bahria Town's counsel objected that the report was under challenge (Dawn). We have found no public account of what the FIA then did with the report.
• 4 May 2018. By two judges to one, the Supreme Court declared the area of Takht Pari to be 2,210 acres and said the exchange of land between Bahria Town and the Forest Department had no effect. It ordered a fresh demarcation under an implementation bench, and directed the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to investigate and file references against those responsible (C.M.A. 3854 of 2014 in S.M.C. 3 of 2009, paragraph 11).
• That judgment and this report. The copy we read does not mention Judge Minhas or his inquiry, so it should not be read as confirming the report. On DHA, it says one wrong cannot justify another, and asks the Chief Justice to take notice if DHA or another society has used forest land unlawfully.
• A difference we have not resolved. BBC Urdu describes a 2018 Supreme Court decision as saying that Bahria Town and DHA occupy state forest land, and as citing a survey report which used Google Earth to show the forest standing on 17 April 2005 and cut by 9 October 2005 (BBC Urdu). Those passages are not in the copy we read. BBC Urdu may be quoting another order or paper in these cases, which we have not identified.

What has happened since

• February 2025. Hum News reported that NAB filed two references in its Rawalpindi court, one on Takht Pari naming 18 people and one on Golf City naming 21, including Malik Riaz. These are accusations and have not been decided in any report we have seen (Hum News).
• The land. Punjab's Chief Conservator of Forests told BBC Urdu in February 2025 that the forest land had not yet been returned (BBC Urdu).
• A separate matter. The UK's National Crime Agency announced a £190 million settlement on 3 December 2019, and said it was a civil matter and not a finding of guilt (Dawn).

What those named say

• DHA called the allegations "false, frivolous and utterly baseless" and said its land was acquired lawfully, in its reply of 24 March 2010 (Business & Human Rights Resource Centre). DHA officials told BBC Urdu in 2025 that they have challenged the report in court, and that under their agreements Malik Riaz was to acquire the land (BBC Urdu).
• Bahria Town said in June 2012 that it "has never done anything against the rules" (Dawn). In 2025 Malik Riaz's staff secretary told BBC Urdu that the matter is in court and Bahria Town will answer there.
• Malik Riaz did not answer BBC Urdu directly. On X he denied NAB's allegations and called its statement blackmail, and said he follows the law of every country (BBC Urdu).
• Habib Rafique is listed as having given no response to the Resource Centre (Business & Human Rights Resource Centre).

Where the report may be found

The likeliest place is the Supreme Court's file in H.R.C. No. 10322-P/2009, action on a Daily Jang clipping about a killing over land in Mauza Sihala, described in paragraph 16 of the Court's order of 14 June 2012 in S.M.C. 5 of 2012. That link to the Minhas inquiry is our inference from Dawn's reports; the order does not say so, and only the Court's registry can confirm it. Related matters are H.R.C. 4729-P of 2011 and the 2018 judgment above.

We looked in the Supreme Court's published judgments and human rights case lists, including older copies in the Internet Archive, and did not find it. A certified copy would have to be sought from the Court's registry. If you hold a copy, or know its case number, please tell BRACE.