NAB files gifts reference against Imran, Bushra

ISLAMABAD  -  The National Account­ability Bureau (NAB) yesterday filed a refer­ence in the Accountabil­ity Court against former prime minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra in the Toshakhana case for acquiring state gifts from the state gifts de­pository (Toshakhana) by undervalue invoicing.

The NAB Rawalpindi, acting on the allegations of graft, has named only two accused in the ref­erence – Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi.

This development comes after the account­ability court on Saturday last had rejected NAB’s request for an extended physical remand of Khan in the Toshakhana case. The court, dismissing the bureau’s plea, de­clared a 21-day judicial remand for the former PTI chairman. The hear­ing was adjourned until January 6. According to sources privy to the reference, Imran and Buhsra have retained 58 gifts out of total 108 gifts secured against under­valued amount of Rs140 million approximately. 

They said that the ac­cused also received a Graff jewellery set from Crown Prince of King­dom of Saudi Arabia which was reported in the Toshakhana of Cabi­net Division by Deputy Military Secretary in 2020 but was not deposited in ac­cordance to the procedure for the true and transpar­ent assessment. The assess­ment of Graff jewellery set was taken from a private appraiser Sohaib Abbasi who has become witness in the case. The amount paid for the gift was Rs9 mil­lion on the basis of under­value price assessment of Rs18,092,000. Despite re­peated requests from the NAB for the return of these gifts, especially the jewelry items, Bushra has alleged­ly failed to comply. In re­sponse, the NAB directed her to appear at the NAB Rawalpindi office on De­cember 11 and bring the specified ornaments with her. Subsequently, Bushra obtained bail until Decem­ber 13 in this case from the accountability court in Islamabad. After scru­tiny from the registrar of­fice, the court will initi­ate proceedings in the reference. The reference was filed by NAB Prosecu­tor Sohail Arif, Investiga­tion Officer Moshin Haroon and Case Officer Waqar ul Ahsan after getting it ap­proved from NAB Chair­man Lt Gen (Retd) Nazeer Ahmed Butt. Meanwhile, in another development, Im­ran Khan challenged his in­dictment in the cipher case and the entire proceedings by the special court — es­tablished under the Official Secrets Act — in the Islam­abad High Court (IHC). On December 12, the special court indicted the former prime minister — who was removed from power via a no-confidence vote last year — in the diplomatic cable case. In his fresh peti­tion, the PTI supremo said: “The learned trial court, while deciding the matter discussed in the petition, did not look into the true perspective of the facts and law which makes the im­pugned order and proceed­ings since 23/11/23 ille­gitimate/not-maintainable in the eye of law and liable to be set aside for the prop­er dispensation of justice.” He pleaded with the court to declare the Decem­ber 12 order of the special court null and void. “[…] It is graciously prayed that the petition in hand may very kindly be accepted while setting aside/declar­ing illegal, the order dat­ed 12.12.23 by the learned trial court illegally while disobeying the law and leg­islature and preferred the wishes and whims of pros­ecution respectively in the interest of justice.”