The verdict in the £190 million Al-Qadir Trust case against former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi is expected to be announced today, after being postponed for the third time earlier this week.
The couple was charged in the case on February 27, 2024, shortly after the general election.
The case alleges that Imran and Bushra Bibi obtained billions of rupees and land worth hundreds of kanals from Bahria Town Ltd to legalize 50 billion rupees that were identified and returned to the country by the UK during the previous PTI government. .
On December 23 (the original date the verdict was supposed to be announced) an accountability court in Islamabad postponed its verdict in the case until January 6 due to the winter holidays.
Then, on January 6, the decision could not be pronounced because Justice Nasir Javed Rana, who had been hearing the case, was on leave.
On January 13, Justice Rana cited the reason for the delay as non-appearance of Imran and Bushra before the accountability court in Adiala jail.
the case
In December 2023, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had filed a corruption complaint against Imran and seven others, including his wife, in connection with the Al-Qadir University Trust.
The reference filed by NAB alleged that Imran, who is currently in prison, played a “pivotal role in the illicit transfer of funds meant for the state of Pakistan to an account designated for payment of land by Bahria Town, Karachi.” He also stated that despite having been given multiple opportunities to justify and provide information, the accused deliberately, with malicious intent, refused to provide information under one pretext or another.
Real estate tycoon Malik Riaz Hussain and his son Ahmed Ali Riaz, Mirza Shehzad Akbar and Zulfi Bukhari are also among the suspects in this reference, but instead of joining the investigation and subsequent judicial proceedings, they absconded and were subsequently declared offenders. (PO). .
Farhat Shahzadi, a close friend of Imran’s wife, and Ziaul Mustafa Nasim, a legal expert with the PTI government’s Asset Recovery Unit, were also declared POs. Subsequently, the properties of the six accused were frozen.
According to the reference, Riaz’s son transferred 240 kanals of land to Shahzadi, while Bukhari received land under a trust, which NAB said did not exist at the time of the transfer.
The prosecution further alleged that a trust was created only after the £190 million adjustment, raising questions about its legitimacy and purpose.
In July 2024, Pervez Khattak, a key PTI leader then who split from the party in 2023 following the May 9 riots, testified in court that he participated in the December 2019 meeting, in which the then Accountability advisor Mirza Shahzad Akbar submitted a confidential deed in a sealed envelope for cabinet approval.
He said that when he asked about the document, Akbar said it was an agreement by the Pakistani government with the UK’s National Crime Agency for the repayment of proceeds of crime.
Days later, Azam Khan, Imran’s then principal secretary, also testified that Akbar brought a note seeking the former prime minister’s approval to present the confidential document in the cabinet meeting.
Zubaida Jalal, defense production minister in the PTI-led government, testified in court that ministers were “kept in the dark” about the transfer of “proceeds of crime” to Malik Riaz.
