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LAHORE: A team of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) officials from Rawalpindi office on Friday visited Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan’s Zaman Park residence to take the receiving of summons from him in Toshakhana gifts investigation.
The NAB recently called Mr Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi, on March 9 to record their statements in the Toshakhana gifts case. Mr Khan’s lawyer reportedly received the summons.
The NAB’s call-up notice, signed by its additional director Mohammad Faisal Qureshi, earlier sent to Mr Khan’s Banigala residence in Islamabad, was issued on Feb 17 — five days before NAB chairman Aftab Sultan resigned claiming that he was being pressured to file cases against some and favour some accused.
The notice said: “The competent authority has taken cognisance of an offence allegedly committed by the accused persons under the provisions of NAO, 1999.
“In this regard, the inquiry proceedings have revealed that during your tenure in office you retained some state gifts presented to you by various foreign dignitaries including the following luxury items — five Rolex wristwatches; one iPhone presented by Chief of Staff, Qatar Armed Forces, dated 14.11.2018; (No. E67574V3), a pair of cufflinks, one ring; unstitched cloth from Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia dated 18.09.2020; Graff gift set containing one Graff wristwatch Master Graff Special Edition Mecca timepiece, one 18K gold and diamond Graff pen and a ring and pair of cufflinks with micro-painting of Mecca.”
The couple has been asked to join the inquiry proceedings before the Combined Investigation Team (CIT), NAB (Rawalpindi/Islamabad).
In the Toshakhana case, Mr Khan is accused of purchasing foreign gifts at throwaway prices and then selling them for millions of rupees.
Published in Dawn, February 25th, 2023
Zulqernain Tahir is a reporter for Dawn with over 20 years of experience, currently covering political and governance issues with a focus on uncovering financial scams. He can be found on X at @zulqerr.
