Staff Report
RAWALPINDI: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Tuesday sought the records of the funds related to the £190m settlement case, from Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan, who remains entangled in several legal cases.
The former prime minister appeared before the anti-graft watchdog’s office in Rawalpindi, as per the commitment he made in response to the NAB summons and underwent questioning.
During the investigation, NAB officials grilled Khan over the records of correspondence with the National Crime Agency in the United Kingdom and freezing orders from Khan regarding the £190 million, agencies reported.
Imran Khan — who is facing a number of cases — had come with a legal team comprising Salman Safdar, Khawaja Ha-ris, Intezar Panjotha, and others at the NAB office. Meanwhile, the PTI chief’s wife, Bushra Bibi who was accompany-ing him stayed in the car outside the office. As per details, the former prime minister told the NAB officials that the watchdog had already received the “Al-Qadir Trust’s records”. He said that the record of orders related to the £190 million was with the cabinet division, and he did not have access to NCA’s records.
Agencies said that the team has asked the PTI chief to submit the records of all donors of the university as well as the donations he has made him-self.
The NAB team, as per the sources, has also sought a record of the university’s affiliation with Punjab Higher Education and the trust deed between the trust and company of all the accused.
However, Khan remained stuck at the NAB premises for several hours as his car broke down and needed to be fixed. He finally left for Lahore as evening dawned in Babar Awan’s car.
In his written response to the NAB, Khan said the £190 million received from the NCA was present in the Supreme Court’s account. “No personal benefit of any kind was taken from this amount.
“Allegations of corruption by NAB are fabricated, baseless and malicious,” the former premier stated. He also denied that he or his wife had benefit-ted monetarily as Al-Qadir trustees.
The federal cabinet had unanimously taken a decision regarding the amount in accordance with the law, Khan said.
The PTI chairman further informed the anti-graft watchdog that a copy of its inquiry report had been lost during his arrest at the Islamabad High Court earlier this month and requested that another copy be sent to his Zaman Park resi-dence.
He also denied NAB’s statement that he had not provided the required documents, saying that they were given to the body after the summons was received.
“The reply as well as my readiness and willingness to join the investigation of the case on 23.05.2023 is without preju-dice to my clear and unam-biguous stand that NAB has no jurisdiction to initiate any investigation or inquiry into this matter,” the response concluded
