NAB’s plea for Imran’s physical remand in £190m case rejected

Accountability court judge Muhammad Bashir says deposed PM to remain in judicial custody

An accountability court in Rawalpindi on Tuesday rejected a request for a 10-day physical remand of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan in the £190 million settlement case, Express News reported.

The hearing of the case took place in Adiala Jail, where Judge Muhammad Bashir presided over the proceedings and reserved the judgement earlier in the day.

National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Prosecutor Muzaffar Abbasi had submitted a written request for a 10-day physical remand for the former premier. Salman Safdar, the legal counsel for PTI chairman, opposed the physical remand and filed a judicial remand request.

While rejecting the NAB prosecutor’s request, judge Bashir stated that the NAB team could interrogate Imran in Adiala Jail, where he is already incarcerated in the cypher case. The judge further said that the PTI chief would remain in judicial remand.

Read more: Imran handed in NAB custody for eight days

Earlier in the day, the government approved the law ministry’s request seeking in-prison trial of the former prime minister in the case.

Following the government's approval, NAB's team arrived at Adiala jail seeking Imran's physical remand in both the Toshakhana and £190 million settlement cases.

A day earlier, the NAB had sought implementation of the accountability court's arrest warrants against the PTI chief in the two cases.

The settlement case

The £190 million (approximately Rs60 billion) settlement case pertains to the money of a property tycoon being laundered and caught by the UK authorities during Imran's government in 2019. The UK government had informed the Pakistani authorities regarding the money being caught.

The notorious May 9 arrest of the ex-prime minister came in this case for the first time.

Addressing a press conference regarding Imran's arrest in the case at the time, then interior minister Rana Sanaullah said that as per law, the amount belonged to the Pakistani nation and should have been deposited in the national exchequer. “Instead [the then adviser to the prime minister] Shahzad Akbar acting as a front-man, got formed the Al-Qadir Trust under a deal executed by him,” he claimed.

Also read: IHC orders stay on trial court proceedings in cypher case

The minister said some 458-kanal of land in Sohawa and another 240-kanal in Bani Gala were registered in the name of Al-Qadir Trust.

Sanaullah said some seven to eight months ago, he had provided details of the two properties and had challenged the PTI chief to clarify if Al-Qadir Trust was not established by Imran himself to hide his corruption.

Sanaullah said the PTI chief and his wife Bushra Bibi were the only two trustees of the trust.

He said the 240-kanal of land in Bani Gala, worth around Rs5-7 billion, was registered in the name of Farah Gogi, a close friend of Imran Khan's wife, while Akbar had also taken Rs2 billion for his services.

He said instead of depositing Rs60 billion into the national treasury, the amount landed in the bank account of the Supreme Court, where the accused property tycoon was under trial. The amount was, in fact, returned to the accused in a complex manner to hoodwink the masses, he added.