PTI to sue Nawaz for ‘taking funds’ from Bin Laden

The case, together with a plea to implement Asghar Khan case verdict, to be filed this week

ISLAMABAD: With ‘revelations’ made in certain interviews and a book as its evidence, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) intends to open up a shady chapter in the country’s political history from the late 1980s in an apparent bid to further malign Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

After expressing its intention to file a petition with the Supreme Court seeking implementation of the Asghar Khan case verdict, the PTI on Monday announced it would also approach the apex court against the PM for allegedly taking money from al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden to finance jihad – money which it claims was later utilised in 1989 to conspire against Benazir Bhutto’s first government.

PTI spokesperson Fawad Chaudhry said he would file within the ongoing week a petition in the Supreme Court seeking admission of a case against Prime Minister Sharif for “taking funds from a foreign individual to destabilise and conspire against democracy in Pakistan”.

Currently, however, PTI possesses no substantial evidence to fortify its case in court, save for some interviews and excerpts from a book titled Khalid Khawaja: Shaheed-e-Aman.



The book was written by Shamama Khalid, the widow of former Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) spy Khalid Khawaja, who was murdered by the Pakistani Taliban in 2010.

The interviews and the book claim that Sharif took a total of Rs1.5 billion from Bin Laden to promote jihad in Indian-Occupied Kashmir and Afghanistan.

They also claim that later an amount of Rs270 million from this money was utilised to support a no-confidence move against former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in 1989.



But at least one senior PTI leader may be thrown under the bus if the case is pursued.

In 2013, PTI leader Masood Sharif Khan Khattak – a former director-general of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) – had submitted a written statement before the Supreme Court in a case related to misappropriation of the IB funds during 1989.

In his nine-page statement, Khattak had claimed that the moving force behind the vote of no-confidence against Benazir in 1989 was 'not political'. He had named late president Ghulam Ishaq Khan and former army chief Mirza Aslam Baig, claiming that the two wanted to keep Benazir out of power.

In a statement over the issue, the PTI spokesperson said, “In the past, Nawaz Sharif remained an active part of several conspiracies against the elected governments.”

Last week, the PTI announced opening up another legal front against the PM, saying it would file a petition demanding implementation on a 2012 verdict of the apex court in the Asghar Khan case.



The case determined that Sharif and other politicians had received money from an intelligence agency prior to the 1990 general election to form an alliance against the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).

Talking to The Express Tribune, spokesperson Chaudhry said the two cases would be filed during the ongoing week, and that he would represent his party in both.