Who is Umar Farooq Zahoor?
Who is Umar Farooq Zahoor?
Dubai-based billionaire businessman Umar Farooq Zahoor is in the headlines of Pakistani news after it was revealed that he purchased Graph watch which belong to Pakistan’s precious Tosha Khana during a transaction in Dubai. The watch, which was gifted to Imran Khan by Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Sulaiman, was bought from Farah Khan for around $2 million.
Many questions
Who is Umar Farooq Zahoor?
They travel in private jets
How did he built wealth?
And how closely related are they to the senior leadership of PTI, PMLN and PPP?
How did you get caught up in so many conflicts and fights?
What is the story of his involvement in several major cases in different countries?
As Umar Farooq appeared on Geo News, everyone started searching for him and published many false and correct news about him. But what is his reality?
Umar Farooq is a successful businessman, it can be estimated from the fact that his wealth is in millions of dollars at this stage. He has invested in real estate, IT business, energy projects, agriculture sector etc in Dubai and many other countries.
This shows, Umar Farooq Zahoor is not an ordinary person. He also works with many Royals in the Middle East and with many heads of state in Africa, Southeast Asia, the Caribbean and South America. Omar Farooq is also Liberia’s Ambassador at- Large for the Middle East and Southeast Asia.
I have serious life threat from wanted criminal Umer farooq zahoor who kidnapped and smuggled my babies 12 years ago on sadaf and zubair fake parentage.Bogus firs r being lodged against me.All fake cases/news against me r done to deprive me frm my babies #bringbackzainabzunairah
— Sophia Mirza (@IamSophiaMirza) November 16, 2022
Umar Farooq Zahoor in the Pakistani news
Umar Farooq Zahoor has been in the Pakistani news for years due to his long- court battle with his ex-wife, model and actress Sophia Mirza.
The couple has two twin daughters who live with Zahoor in an exclusive neighborhood in Mohammed Bin Rashid City District One in Dubai.
Umar Farooq Zahoor’s name came up in Pakistani media for the first time in 2021 when all the TV channels started reporting about FIA, which was then under Shehzad Akbar, as former FIA DG Bashir Memon. It was Memon who allowed Zahoor to come to Pakistan on an official visit with a member of the royal family.
Bashir Memon and Zahoor were linked in the news and Zahoor was called a “fugitive” from the law.
Soon after this, pictures emerged in which Umar Zahoor was seen meeting PTI ministers Faisal Vawda, Umar Ayub, late Naeemul Haque and others.
Faisal Vawda said this week that he met Umar Farooq Zahoor on the instructions of former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s office and added that several senior government figures were also part of the meeting.
It later emerged that Zahoor’s name was put in the Exit Control List (ECL) by none other than the PTI government over a feud with his ex-wife Sophia Mirza.
Early life
Umar Farooq Zahoor was born in Norway to Pakistani parents from Sialkot.
Umar Farooq Zahoor did his early education in Norway and then moved to the Middle East about 22 years ago.
Feud with ex-wife Sophia
Umar Farooq Zahoor claims that he knows Shehzad Akbar very well and in March 2019 he introduced Farah Shahzai to him. Records show that Shehzad Akbar and Umar Zahoor had a heated argument with each other in early June 2020 when the Corporate Circle of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Lahore contacted him after receiving a complaint from concerned citizen Khushbakht Mirza, who accused Umar Farooq Zahoor of fraud and money laundering of around Rs 16 billion. The investigation began.
The complaint did not state that Khush Bakht Mirza was actually Sophia Mirza. Sophia Mirza urged the FIA to take action against Zahoor for the sake of Pakistan’s name and to prevent financial crimes against Pakistan, but she did not reveal that he was her ex-husband and the couple had a court dispute.
Shehzad Akbar, who was then the head of the Asset Recovery Unit (ARU) and also controlled the FIA, took Sophia’s complaint to the Cabinet and demanded probe for more than Rs 16 billion on Zahoor’s by the FIA. The cabinet approved to investigate the alleged fraud.
The FIA further alleged in Mirza’s complaint that Zahoor allegedly committed a bank fraud of $89.2 million in Oslo, Norway in 2010, and another fraud of $12 million in Bern, Switzerland in 2014. Involved in child trafficking, defrauded 9.37 million Turkish lira.
Executed a dubious $510 million deal in Ghana, owns millions of dollars in cash in the form of black money, and owns multimillion-dollar houses and properties in Dubai and Pakistan, including in upscale districts of Dubai, Sialkot, Gwadar and Islamabad.
As soon as the federal cabinet approved the action against Zahoor, FIA Lahore chief Dr. Rizwan initiated action against Zahoor. His name was put on the Exit Control List (ECL), a non-bailable warrant in an FIR was obtained from the court without fulfilling legal requirements, and his passport and identity card were blacklisted on the basis of the said non-bailable warrant. A red notice was issued by National Crime Bureau Pakistan through Interpol for the arrest of Zahoor.
Shehzad Akbar, actress Sophia Mirza booked in fraud case
Umar Farooq Zahoor, the Ambassador at Large of Liberia, initiated a legal case against the FIA and the matter went to court where the non-bailable warrant was quashed. In June 2021, the Lahore High Court ordered the cancellation of the red warrant issued against him.
In July 2022, Umar Farooq Zahoor filed a defamation suit against his ex-wife Sophia in a Lahore court and court called her to reply.
Two weeks back, Umar Farooq Zahoor’s name was removed from Interpol’s red notice list after the government of Pakistan withdrew the case filed against him by the FIA under the PTI government. Shehzad Akbar has denied that he introduced Farah Khan to Umar Farooq Zahoor and has repeatedly accused Umar Farooq Zahoor.
Umar Farooq Zahoor says that now he has the precious watch that Muhammad bin Sulaiman gave to Imran Khan and then sold it to him. He says he has all the documents and evidence to prove his claim. (Monitoring Desk)
