Dubai leaks reveal former SSP Rao Anwar’s family owns villas, apartments

A recent report titled “Dubai Unlocked” known as Dubai Leaks by the Orga­n­ised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project and the Norwegian financial outlet E24, which unearthed a list of Pakistanis holding assets in Dubai, also named former SSP Malir Rao Anwar’s wife as the owner of five properties, including two co-owned by the couple’s son. 

According to Dawn News, SSP Rao Anwar, known for his notorious and questionable record as a police official in Karachi, with an income of Rs95,000 visited Dubai 74 times in six years while his family owns a real estate fortune in Dubai.

The investigation revealed that Ms Ahmed co-owns two properties with her son. She is listed as the owner of a two-bedroom apartment in Dubai Hills Estate's Executive Residences. Purchased in 2021 for roughly half a million dollars, the apartment was rented out for $44,923 for a year.

Ms Ahmed owns an office space in the Exchange Tower, located in Dubai's Business Bay that she purchased in 2018 for $213,452. It is currently rented out, and as a Dubai resident, she does not pay taxes on it.

The investigation also found two more properties, previously owned by Rao Anwar’s spouse, including an apartment, valued at $1.48m in 2021 and a three-bedroom villa valued at $408,000 in 2022. Both have been sold.

Ms Ahmed acquired a luxurious six-bedroom villa in Hadaeq Sheikh Mohammed Rashid, a posh residential project, worth a staggering $6.67m. The details showed a single transaction on May 30, 2023, marked as a "delayed sell," suggesting that the villa was bought in installments.

Rao Anwar was involved in a range of illegal activities in Karachi, including land grabbing, smuggling, running vice dens, narcotics trafficking, and extrajudicial killings.

He first came into the public eye after the murder of Naqeebullah Mehsud in an encounter. The incident sparked public outrage. After five years of trial, he was acquitted by the Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) in January 2023.