IHC disposes of Imran’s plea in gifts case

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has disposed of petitions filed by former prime minister Imran Khan and his wife against an inquiry initiated by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) into a gift repository—Toshakhana—case, noting that it cannot stop NAB from probing the matter.

When a division bench, consisting of Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Babar Sattar, on Wednesday resumed hearing of the petitions challenging the call-up notices issued by the top graft buster, NAB prosecution team requested the court to reject Imran and his wife Bushra Bibi’s petitions.

The top accountability watchdog also submitted a written reply.

It said Imran Khan during his term as the prime minister received around 108 gifts from foreign dignitaries. The former premier kept 58 of these gifts whose value was around Rs142,123,100 but Imran paid only Rs38,077,050 for these items.

It said NAB initiated an inquiry into this alleged misuse of the Toshakhana and sent calls-up notices along with questionnaires to seek information from the petitioner strictly in accordance with the law.

“[However], the petitioner instead of replying to the questionnaire annexed with the 1st call-up notice, submitted an evasive reply…The said reply cannot be termed to be a reply to the questions asked by the petitioner. Therefore, in the interest of justice, a 2nd call-up notice was issued.”

It said the contentions of the petitioner were based on surmises and conjectures, and that NAB will carry out the inquiry within the mandate of law. All the actions will be taken strictly in accordance with law.

Justice Aamer Farooq asked NAB to issue notices to the petitioner in the light of the judgments of the Supreme Court and according to the law. The bench later disposed of the petitions noting that it cannot stop the graft buster from carrying out an inquiry.

NAB can also take action against the petitioners [Imran Khan and his wife] as per law if they do not cooperate with it during its inquiry, the court observed.

On July 7, 2022, NAB Executive Board Meeting (EBM) decided to authorize an Inquiry into alleged misuse of authority and criminal breach of trust by the former prime minister, who, it claimed, illegally sold gifts presented by foreign dignitaries.

NAB Rawalpindi later authorized the inquiry on August 5, 2022 and sent call-up notices and questionnaires to Imran and his wife.

Imran Khan approached the IHC against these notices on March 30. The former first lady on April 1 also challenged the notices issued by NAB to her on February 17 and March 16 and requested the court to declare them illegal. She also requested the court to stop NAB from turning the inquiry into an investigation until a decision is taken on her application.

In October 2022, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) also disqualified the PTI chief as a lawmaker, ruling that Imran had bought gifts given by foreign dignitaries from the state gift depository but did not disclose the assets in declarations submitted to the commission.