ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party on Tuesday condemned “one-sided trials” against its founding leader after an accountability court indicted him and his wife, Bushra Bibi, in a corruption reference involving a purported embezzlement of £190 million.
The charges in the case stem from a settlement between the United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency (NCA) and a prominent Pakistani real estate tycoon, Malik Riaz Hussain, which resulted in the repatriation of the said amount to Pakistan in December 2019.
Khan, who was in power at the time, later faced an inquiry by the country’s anti-graft body, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), for misusing his authority by allowing Hussain to submit the amount to the Supreme Court to pay a heavy fine imposed by the judiciary on the tycoon.
The ex-premier and his wife were accused of facilitating this settlement for personal gain, allegedly receiving a significant chunk of land in exchange, intended for the establishment of a university, thus purportedly costing the national exchequer.
“A NAB court has indicted former Prime Minister Imran Khan and former First Lady [Bushra Bibi] in a £190 million case,” the PTI said in a statement. “The court has summoned five prosecution witnesses on March 6 to record their statement.”
“PTI condemns one-sided trials with decisions reached in haste while allowing limited access to Founding Chairman PTI Imran Khan’s legal team or no access to media & specifically international media outlets,” it added. “Trials conducted behind prison walls, only meant to paving way for miscarriage of Justice particularly in fabricated & politically motivated cases, only to keep Imran Khan behind the bars.”
The accountability court conducted the hearing in Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail where Khan has been incarcerated in cases including the illegal sale of state gifts and divulging official secrets.
His indictment in the £190 million adds to the array of legal challenges he is already facing.
The PTI says the case has no legal basis since the “framework agreement” underpinning the settlement between Hussain’s family and Britain’s NCA “itself dictated that the settlement amount would be paid against the 460 billion civil debt owed by Behria Town to SC [Supreme Court] of Pakistan.”