Malik Riaz may continue to use ‘Bahria’ as brand name until April 14

Property magnate Mr Malik Riaz Hussain recently lost a lengthy legal battle for the right to use ‘Bahria’ as a brand name for his real estate developments, as a local court in Rawalpindi ruled that naval subsidiary Bahria Foundation was actually entitled to the name. But there has now been a plot twist, so to speak.

After filing an appeal in court, Mr Riaz has reportedly been allowed to retain the brand name until April 14, 2015, which is the date for the next hearing. Brief respite for Mr Riaz, sure enough, but the battle between Bahria Foundation and Pakistan’s favourite real estate tycoon continues.

Harking back, Civil Judge Ms Nadiatuz Zuhra Naqvi had ruled against Mr Riaz on March 27, barring him from using ‘Bahria’ as a brand name, setting aside the stay order obtained by Mr Riaz in 2002.

We discussed the timeline of the battle over the brand name between Bahria Foundation and Mr Riaz in our previous post on the topic, which you can read here, so we won’t be going into those details.

The important matter to discuss here is what will happen if Mr Riaz completely loses the right to use ‘Bahria’ as a brand name for his real estate developments, even after filing multiple appeals in higher courts?

In my opinion, losing the battle will not affect the developments that have been launched and completed under the banner of ‘Bahria Town’, but this will certainly create confusion among the investors until the settlement of the matter and it may also affect property prices in Bahria Town, but only for a short time.

I, however, believe it would be too early to be certain about anything as Mr Riaz is unlikely to let go his brand name easily. So, here we need to adopt the ‘wait and watch’ approach until the matter reaches complete resolution.