Imran unable to furnish complete money trail

PTI chairman says English counties don’t maintain salary records of players beyond 20 years

ISLAMABAD: Expressing his inability to submit a money trail of his London flat, cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan claimed on Saturday that English counties he had played for in the 1970s and 80s do not maintain salary records of their players beyond 20 years.

“I do not have any record of the exact schedule of my employments,” reads a concise supplementary statement submitted by Imran’s counsel in a case pending before the Supreme Court seeking his disqualification for non-disclosure of assets, ownership of offshore companies and receipt of foreign funds for the party.

Imran, who is the chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, claimed that he was the highest paid overseas player in the UK in the 1980s. However, to augment his claims about his earning in the UK, he attached a contract agreement of former Pakistani bowler Mustaq Ahmad saying, “It indicates what other lesser-known cricketer was paid [later] along with all the perks [Imran had also received during his times]”.

The PTI chief informed the apex court that he had started earning money abroad when he started playing cricket during his days as an undergraduate student at Oxford University, England.

He was later selected to play for Pakistan along with Worcestershire from 1971. He had played for Sussex County from 1977 to 1988. All the payments Imran received had income tax deducted from them at source, the statement reads.

He further informed the court that he had to spend his days outside Pakistan to fulfil his commitment to Sussex Country Cricket and to participate in other international cricketing events between 1977 and 1988. As he was a “non-resident, the Pakistani income tax law did not apply to him”.



He also played for the Kerry Packer series, a cricket competition, between 1977 and 1979, for $25,000 per year. Besides his earning, there were also the airfare, boarding, lodging costs and prize money.

Imran submitted that he had played in Australia for New South Wales between 1984 and 1985, earning Australian $50,000. In 1984, he had mortgaged a one-bedroom apartment in London through Royal Trust in the name of Niazi Services Limited.

The apartment was purchased for £117,500 on mortgage for 20 years and with an initial down payment of £61,000 to Royal Trust. He had made the payment from his savings and earnings he received while playing for Sussex Country Cricket and the Kerry Packer series.

He managed to pay off the mortgage well before its due date as he had a benefit in 1987 when he earned £190,000 and his savings. The PTI chief said besides salary he had also received payments for endorsements, newspaper articles, interviews and prize money in the Kerry Packer Series.

“There could be no money laundering at any time. From his teens the only profession of him [Imran] was as a professional cricketer and he was entirely self-sufficient with all his financial obligations outside of Pakistan throughout his overseas career,” the statement concludes.



Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s daughter Maryam Sharif took to Twitter to criticise Imran for his failure to submit a money trail. “While you were busy conspiring against others, you left your closet open and your skeletons fell out. God has His own ways,” she wrote on microblogging site.

In another tweet she said: “Don't attack others with a LIE when you can be destroyed with the truth”.

Later addressing a press conference over the issue, PTI spokesperson Fawad Chaudhry said: “Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif could have avoided embarrassment he faced by simply following this example and submitting a money trail to justify his stance over London properties and sources through which they had been bought.”

Chaudhry said all the petitions against Imran were destined to be trashed by the apex court since the allegations levelled in these petitions were nothing but frivolous and politically motivated.

Taking a jibe at political opponents, Fawad Chaudhry said whether it’s Nawaz Sharif, Asif Zardari or Maulana Fazalur Rehman none of them could ever submit a money trail similar to that of Imran Khan.