- Justice Nasir Javed Rana is hearing the case at Adiala jail.
- Bushra Bibi refuses to present a witness in his favor in court.
- The hearing against Imran Khan, Bushra Bibi, has been adjourned to December 12.
RAWALPINDI: The high-profile ₹190 million corruption case against incarcerated former prime minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi has entered its final stages as the couple recorded their Section 342 statement of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).
Accountability court judge Nasir Javed Rana on Monday presided over the hearing of the corruption case against the ex-prime minister at Adiala jail in Rawalpindi.
The 71-year-old cricketer-turned-politician has been behind bars since August last year after being convicted in the Toshakhana-I case – one of dozens of cases registered against the former prime minister since his ouster from the power in April 2022.
At the start of today’s hearing, the PTI founder was produced before the court while the former first lady was also present in the courtroom after skipping almost 10 hearings.
The judge suspended non-bailable arrest warrants for the former first lady after her court appearance.
Khan’s wife told the judge that she did not want to present any witnesses in his favor in court.
Meanwhile, the court adjourned the hearing to December 12.
At the previous hearing, Khan and his wife, who was recently released on bail, were served with a 14-page questionnaire as part of the settlement case.
The questionnaire, which contains 79 questions related to the reference, was provided for their final returns under Section 342 of the CrPC, 1898.
In the questionnaire — a copy of which is available with Geo Newsthe court asked the PTI founder if he and his associates illegally obtained “monetary benefits” – which include land measuring 458 kanals – and, in return, facilitated the “illegal and dishonest transfer/adjustment of 171.159 million pounds sterling out of 190 million pounds sterling “intended for the State of Pakistan”.
The court, while citing evidence, said that co-accused Shahzad Akbar – former special assistant on accountability – “with connivance and active knowledge” of Khan dishonestly sent a note dated December 2, 2019 to the prime minister fallen.
Seeking its response, the court said: “The note contained distorted information, implying that the funds frozen in the United Kingdom were to be returned to the State of Pakistan, wrongly terming the land purchase agreement as a fine and knowingly denied that the Supreme Court account was being exploited. for the benefit of the State of Pakistan.
Furthermore, the audit court said: “It appears from the evidence that the imprisoned politician, as Prime Minister, received dishonest instructions for placing the note as a supplementary agenda without prior circulation, in violation of the rules of company, in 1973, despite the fact that your co-accused Mirza Shahzad Akbar, with your active connivance and under your influence, had already signed and submitted, in a dishonest and unacknowledged manner, the confidential document to the National Crime Agency UK on November 11, 2019.”
What’s the case for £190 million?
According to charges in the case, Imran and other accused allegedly adjusted the 50 billion rupees – £190 million at the time – sent by the British National Crime Agency (NCA) to the Pakistani government as part of the deal with a real estate tycoon.
Subsequently, the then Prime Minister obtained approval from his cabinet for the settlement with the UK crime agency on December 3, 2019, without disclosing details of the confidential agreement.
It was decided that the money would be submitted to the Supreme Court on behalf of the tycoon.
According to NAB officials, the PTI founder and his wife got land worth billions of rupees from the real estate tycoon to build an educational institution, in return for entering into a deal to to give legal cover to the real estate tycoon’s black money received from British crime. agency.