ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan was on Wednesday indicted by a court for unlawfully selling state gifts (Toshakhana case) during his premiership between 2018-22, broadcaster Geo News reported.
Separately, an accountability court reserved its verdict on the National Accountability Bureau's (NAB) plea seeking 14-day remand of the PTI chairman. Both the hearings were held at the Islamabad Police Lines.
Additional and District Sessions Judge Humayun Dilawar presided over the hearing concerning the Toshakhana case.
The former prime minister was arrested on Tuesday by Rangers on the orders of the NAB, an autonomous anti-graft agency, in relation to the Al Qadir Trust case. He was then moved to its office in the garrison town of Rawalpindi for questioning.
Later, announcing the reserved verdict on Khan’s arrest, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) said that the arrest was legal.
Troops approved
Meanwhile, Pakistan's government gave the go-ahead on Wednesday for soldiers to be deployed in Punjab province following riots sparked by the arrest Khan, according to an official order from the interior ministry.
The order said the date and duration of the deployment, which was requested by the Punjab provincial government, had yet to be finalised, as well as the number of troops involved.
Earlier on Wednesday, PTI Senior Vice-President Fawad Chaudhry filed a petition challenging Khan’s arrest in the Supreme Court amid tight security.
At the outset of the hearing, the NAB sought a 14-day physical remand. However, the PTI lawyers opposed the request.
Meanwhile, the NAB prosecutor told the court that Imran was shown the warrant at the time of his arrest. He also assured Imran’s lawyer that the necessary documentation would be provided.
“This is a corruption case which the UK’s National Crime Agency has probed,” he said, adding that the money received was meant to be transferred to the government of Pakistan.
“Instead of the government, the funds that were received were transferred to Bahria Town,” he said.
On the other hand, the PTI chief contradicted NAB’s version and told the court that he was shown the arrest warrant when he was taken to the bureau’s office and not at the time of his arrest.
According to its rules, it is madatory for officials to report the gifts and other such materials received by them to the Cabinet Division.
Only the president and the prime minister are exempt and can keep gifts that cost less than Pakistani Rs30,000.
They can also retain the expensive gifts from Toshakhana by paying a certain percentage of their value assessed by the government.
The controversy arose when Khan, who came to power in 2018, resisted disclosing details of the many presents he received during his time in office on demand from a journalist under Pakistan’s Right To Information (RTI) law.
The request was declined by the PTI-controlled central government citing concerns that doing so would severely impact relations with other countries.
The journalist lodged a complaint with the Federal Information Commission after the Cabinet Division refused to disclose the Toshakhana details of Imran Khan.
The commission instructed the Cabinet Division to furnish it as per the RTI. However, the Imran Khan-led government failed to comply with the directive, prompting the requesting party to approach the high court to enforce the Federal Information Commission’s decision.
On April 2022, the IHC ordered the government to furnish the information, but before it could process, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) took over power from the Imran Khan administration.
Amid a political change of guard in Pakistan, details of Imran Khan’s Toshakhana action were leaked to the media.
On August 4, Members of the National Assembly (MNA) from the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), part of the new ruling alliance of the PML-N government in Pakistan, filed a reference with the Speaker of the National Assembly, seeking ousted PM’s disqualification as a member of the assembly as well
The reference alleged that the prime minister failed to declare the money earned from the sale of the gifts in his statement of assets and liabilities, which all legislators are required to submit annually to the ECP.
In a disclosure letter to the ECP, the former prime minister admitted to selling four presents from Toshakhana but also said that he bought them from the government by paying a percentage of their value.
According to a Dawn report, in a letter to ECP Khan admitted that he sold the gifts at a premium and used the proceeds to construct an approach road to his Banigala residence.
On October 21, 2022, Imran Khan was disqualified from the National Assembly for five years by the ECP after he was found guilty of concealing facts about selling expensive gifts.
A four-member bench, headed by Pakistan’s Chief Election Commissioner Sikander Sultan Raja, announced the verdict at the ECP Secretariat in Islamabad, and according to the verdict criminal proceedings were to be initiated against Imran Khan for misdeclaration, reported Dawn.
