ISLAMABAD: Will the former prime minister and founding chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and his wife Bushra Bibi be convicted or walk free in the £190 million pound case.
The Islamabad Accountability Court is set to announce its verdict today (Monday) in the high-profile £190 million corruption case involving Imran Khan, Bushra Bibi and others.
The Accountability Court Judge Nasir Javed Rana will announce the reserved decision at Adiala Jail, where PTI founding is incarcerated.
The court reserved its verdict on December 18, 2024. The £190 million corruption case verdict, originally scheduled for December 23, 2024, was delayed twice before being rescheduled for January 13, 2025.
The founder of PTI and Bushra Bibi were indicted on February 27, 2024.
Witnesses and Defense
NAB recorded the statements of 35 witnesses and dropped 24 witnesses. Among the important witnesses, former Principal Secretary Azam Khan and former Chief Minister Pervez Khattak had their statements recorded.
Former Federal Minister Zubaida Jalal also recorded her statement, however, the accused did not present any witnesses in their defense.
It should be remembered that the jail trial of the 190 million pound reference was completed in a year and this is the only case against Imran Khan whose hearings lasted for a year.
On November 13, 2023, NAB had arrested the founder of PTI in the 190 million pound reference and NAB interrogated Imran Khan in Adiala Jail for 17 days.
On December 1, 2023, NAB filed the 190 million pound reference in the Accountability Court, after which Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi were interrogated in jail.
The court had indicted the founder of PTI and Bushra Bibi on February 27, 2024. The case has had more than 100 hearings.
The defendants have denied wrongdoing.
What is the £190 million case?
According to NAB, Bahria Town owner Malik Riaz donated 458 kanals of land to Al-Qadir Turst University linked to Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi.
The anti-graft watchdog alleges that Imran Khan, Bushra Bibi helped Malik Riaz benefit from a £190 million settlement with the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA).
In October 2022 last year, NAB had started investigating the matter. According to NAB documents, on December 3, 2019, in a cabinet meeting chaired by Imran Khan, it was decided to indirectly transfer back the Rs50 billion received by Malik Riaz from the UK. This money was seized by the British National Crime Agency (NCA) from property tycoon Malik Riaz on charges of money laundering.
Former Prime Minister Imran Khan had registered a trust for the Al-Qadir University project within weeks of the cabinet decision on December 26, 2019 regarding the real estate developer, which later became the donor for the university.
According to NAB, just 3 weeks before the registration of the trust, Imran Khan’s cabinet had decided to indirectly return the money received by Pakistan through the National Crime Agency to Malik Riaz.
Taking notice of the corruption and corrupt practices in this case, NAB Rawalpindi summoned all the members present in the cabinet meeting of December 3, 2019, including Pervez Khattak, Fawad Chaudhry and Sheikh Rashid, on separate dates under the NAB Ordinance 1999.
Also Read: Imran Khan will be convicted in £190 million case: Faisal Vawda
According to the NAB notice, item number 2 in the said cabinet meeting was titled ‘Freezing of accounts of Ahmed Ali Riaz, his family and Messrs Bahria Town and order for transfer of funds to Pakistan’
The agenda item on this matter was presented and briefed by the Prime Minister’s Special Assistant on Accountability and Interior (Shehzad Akbar) and the Cabinet Secretary was directed to seal the record. The notice also summoned Ahmed Ali Riaz, son of property tycoon Malik Riaz
How did Malik Riaz get his NCA money back?
According to details, in 2019, the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) investigated Malik Riaz and then as a result of these investigations, Malik Riaz deposited an amount of 190 million pounds to the NCA under a settlement. The NCA had stated that the amount of 190 million pounds obtained as a result of this settlement was the property of the State of Pakistan, which was transferred to Pakistan.
However, upon reaching Pakistan, under a cabinet decision, the money reached the account of the Supreme Court instead of the national treasury, into which Malik Riaz is paying the Supreme Court in installments through a settlement of Rs 460 billion in the Bahria Town Karachi case.
Thus, according to NAB, the money confiscated from an accused was returned to him, while this money belonged to the state of Pakistan, but it was spent on meeting Malik Riaz’s personal debt. In this regard, a decision was taken in a cabinet meeting chaired by former Prime Minister Imran Khan in 2019 and the record in this regard was also sealed, declaring the matter sensitive.
The details of the agreement that NCA made with Malik Riaz were also kept confidential and after the NCA, the government of Pakistan did not tell the public or the media how the money of the state of Pakistan was used again by Malik Riaz.
In this regard, at that time, in his stance on Twitter, Malik Riaz had said that some habitual critics were distorting the NCA report and his character was being assassinated. He said, ‘I sold the property legally acquired and disclosed in the UK to pay the Supreme Court an amount equivalent to 190 million pounds in the Karachi Bahria Town case.’
