ISLAMABAD: Accountability Court in Islamabad convicted the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf’s founder and former prime minister Imran Khan and his spouse Bushra Bibi in charges pertained to illegal adjustment of 190 million pound received from Britian’s National Crime Agency.
PTI’s founder and his wife among others were booked by the national accountability bureau on allegations that Imran Khan and some of his other absconding associates and property tycoon in 2019 got illegally adjusted Rs50 billion — amounting to £190 million at the time — sent by Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA) to the Pakistani government during his tenure as the country’s prime minister.
According to the prosecution, the 190 million pound relates to a property tycoon Malik Riaz’s assets in UK which were seized by the NCA.
NAB alleged that Imran Khan in a secret manner got adjusted the NCA amount in supreme court’s account as part of instalment of property tycoon’s penalty in Bahria town case instead of depositing the same in national treasury and in return they obtained 458 Kanals land and other monetary benefits from the property tycoon for purpose of establishing Al-Qadir university trust.
The court observed that prosecution proved its case that Imran Khan being as trustee of the trust got approved the adjustment without any debating from the cabinet and provided illegal gain to the property tycoon and under guise of such adjustment obtained material monetary gain, pecuniary advantages including donation of property 458 Kanals, funds amounting to Rs.285 million, university building valuing Rs. 284,032,000 and in kind contribution to the Al-Qadir university project trust.
The court observed that Imran Khan’s wife Bushra Bibi also played a significant role in acknowledging the receipt of property and abetting the commission of crime by signing acknowledging of donation and signatory of joint account of Al-Qadir university project trust.
The court handed down Imran Khan 14 years imprisonment with fine of Rs.1 million while his wife was sentenced to 7 years in prison with fine of Rs.0.5 million. The court also ordered forfeiture of the property of Al-Qadir Trust to the federal government.
During the trial, six co-accused, including Malik Riaz Hussain, Syed Zulfi Abbas Bukhari, Ahmed Ali Riaz, Farhat Shahzadi, Mirza Shahzad Akbar and Zia-ul-Mustafa Nasim, were declared absconders. The court ordered the freezing of their assets and bank accounts.
Terming the trial and conviction as political vendetta, Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party argued that the land was donated to the trust for a spiritual education centre and was not used for Khan’s personal gain.
PTI chairman Gohar Ali Khan said in social media statement that the former prime minister “has done no wrong” and that this was a “politically motivated unfair trial”.
“But [Imran Khan] will not give in, he will not give up, he will not break,” he wrote.
Friday’s verdict comes after multiple delays as Khan’s party held talks with the government.
After his conviction on Friday, Imran Khan told journalists in the courtroom that he would “neither make any deal nor seek any relief.”
A post on Khan’s account on social media platform X, citing his message from jail, asked his supporters not to panic and called the conviction a “joke.”
“I will stay in the prison cell for as long as I have to in the struggl against this dictatorship,” the post said, adding “We will not make any deals and will face all false cases.”
However, government’s information minister Ataullah Tarar has declared that the conviction of former prime minister Imran Khan in the £190 million corruption case was based on merit and is an “open-and-shut case”.
