ISLAMABAD: An Islamabad court on Thursday issued notice to former Prime Minister Imran Khan on the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) application for criminal proceedings against him in the Toshakhana case.
District and Sessions Judge Zafar Iqbal heard the case filed by the District Election Commissioner last month after the decision of the ECP in which the former Prime Minister was found guilty of corruption.
The court had earlier this week reserved its decision on the hearing of the petition. The trial will begin on January 9.
On November 22, the trial court heard the Toshakhana reference filed by the Election Commission against Khan for alleged involvement in corruption, which the former prime minister denies.
Previous hearing
On the previous hearing, ECP’s lawyer Saad Hassan appeared in the court and presented his arguments.
“Imran Khan said that he built the road with the money he got from the Toshakhana [gifts],” he said, adding that any gift the prime minister receives has to be deposited in the Toshakhana.
He added that after paying 20 percent of the value of the gifts, the Toshakhana gifts can be kept until the PTI government introduces a new law under which Toshakhana gifts will be paid 50 percent of its value. It was allowed to take after doing.
“The value of the watch was estimated at Rs 85 million,” he said, adding that Khan failed to disclose the price at which he sold Toshakhana’s watch. Hasan said that if any closet items have been transferred, it is mandatory to mention them in the tax return.
The lawyer said that it is not possible to personally own an item from the Toshakhana without declaring it.
He said that the Election Commission “considers the income tax returns provided by the former prime minister in 2022-2021 to be invalid”, adding that the Toshakhana case was brought up in the National Assembly and the case was taken up in the High Court in 2020-2021. I was taken
Lawyer Hasan said that Khan’s way of handling Toshakhana’s gifts was tantamount to money laundering.
“Imran Khan said that he has deposited the money in one bank account for all the items,” the ECP lawyer said, adding that the properties or gifts taken by Khan during 2018-2019 will be counted among their assets. .
Hassan said that Khan should have declared all his assets before the Election Commission.
“The former prime minister also took jewelery from Toshakhana but did not declare it.” The lawyer said that the former prime minister also talked about four goats and five lakh rupees in the statements.
The lawyer took the stand that the former prime minister and his wife took a total of 58 gifts worth Rs 142 million from the Toshakhana over three years, which was equivalent to 20 percent of the value of the gifts.
He said that out of the said Rs 142 million, Khan received gifts worth Rs 107 million from Toshakhana during 2018-19.
The lawyer added that Khan did not want to make the Rs 142 million gifts public. The lawyer said that in 2019/20, Khan declared Rs 80 lakh in tax returns but did not say what it was worth.
