The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Rawalpindi office summoned Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan in the 190 million pound Al-Qadir Trust case on May 23 (Tuesday).
The anti-graft watchdog summoned the former prime minister at 10 a.m. in connection with an investigation into the £190 million settlement in the UK.
A two-member NAB team handed over the summons to the former prime minister’s legal team at his Zaman Park residence in Lahore tonight.
On May 9, violent protests, triggered by Khan’s arrest in the same case, took to the streets almost across the country, killing at least 10 people and injuring scores, prompting authorities to arrest thousands of PTI activists. was forced to arrest.
Civil and military installations, including the General Headquarters (GHQ) and Corps Commander’s House (Jinnah House) in Lahore, also came under attack by miscreants on the day as chaos spread across the country after Khan’s arrest.
However, the Supreme Court ordered his release on May 11 and directed him to appear before the Islamabad High Court (IHC) the next day.
The army and the government alike have vowed to try those who attacked military installations under the Pakistan Army Act, the Official Secrets Act and other laws.
The case
The PTI chairman is facing allegations of corruption worth billions of rupees in a case related to a property tycoon.
Khan — along with his wife Bushra Bibi and other PTI leaders — is facing an NAB inquiry into the settlement between the PTI government and a property tycoon, which allegedly cost the national exchequer £190 million. .
According to the charges, Khan and the other accused allegedly siphoned off 50 billion rupees – 190 million pounds at the time – that Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA) sent to the Pakistani government as part of a deal with the property tycoon. was
He is also accused of obtaining illegal benefits in the form of more than 458 kanals of land at Mouza Bakrala, Sohawa for the establishment of Al-Qadir University.
During the PTI government, the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) seized assets worth 190 million pounds of property tycoons in the UK.
The agency said the assets would be transferred to the government of Pakistan and that the settlement with the Pakistani property tycoon was “a civil matter, and does not indicate criminality”.
Subsequently, the then Prime Minister Khan got approval from his Cabinet on 3 December 2019 for a settlement with the UK Crime Agency, without disclosing details of the secret deal.
It was decided that the money would be deposited in the Supreme Court on behalf of the tycoon.
Then, weeks after the PTI-led government approved the deal with the property tycoon, Al-Qadir Trust was set up in Islamabad.
PTI leaders Zulfi Bukhari, Babar Awan, Bushra Bibi and their close friend Farah Khan were appointed members of the trust.
Two to three months after the cabinet’s approval, the property tycoon transferred 458 kanals of land to Bukhari, a close aide of the PTI chief, who later transferred it to the trust.
Later, Bukhari and Awan were chosen as trustees. That trust is now registered in the names of Khan, Bushra Bibi and Farah.
NAB officials were earlier investigating the alleged misuse of powers in the recovery process of “dirty money” received from the UK crime agency.
After “irrefutable evidence” emerged in the case, the inquiry was turned into an investigation.
According to NAB officials, Khan and his wife acquired land worth billions of rupees from a property tycoon, to build an educational institution, in return for which the UK’s crime agency signed an agreement to provide legal protection to the property tycoon’s black money.
