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DAfter Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi were sentenced to 14 years in prison and seven years in prison respectively in a real estate corruption case, one of Khan’s close aides received a lucrative offer to testify against the former Pakistani prime minister. He said he was offered a deal.
Syed Zulfiqar Bukhari is Mr Khan’s international media adviser and, like many other senior members of Mr Khan’s Pakistan Sulik-e-Insaf (PTI) party, faces possible detention if he returns to Pakistan. Based in London due to concerns that
He said on Friday that Mr Khan and his wife had received billions of rupees worth of cash from powerful real estate tycoon Malik Riaz in a deal that is said to have cost the exchequer around 50 billion rupees (about £190m). He is also one of the defendants in a case in which he was convicted of acquiring land in the United States. .
The allegations surfaced after Riaz reached an agreement with Britain’s National Crime Agency in December 2019 to hand over assets, including real estate, in a case related to money laundering. Instead of depositing the funds in Pakistan’s national treasury, Khan’s government allegedly used them to pay fines related to another land acquisition case in Karachi.
The case is perhaps the most important of dozens brought against Mr Khan since he was ousted as prime minister in 2022. In Pakistan, the case is known as the Al-Qadir Trust case, after the welfare organization founded by Mr. Khan and his wife. That he received the land from Rias. Prosecutors accused Khan, Bushra Bibi, Buhari and others of playing a key role in illegally transferring state funds for personal gain.
Khan denies any wrongdoing and says all charges against him are aimed at protecting him and his party from power. All convictions in the other three main cases have been overturned by higher courts or suspended.
Mr Bukhari told The Independent that he faced “tremendous pressure” from authorities to testify against Mr Khan in the Al Qadir Trust case. “Everyone whose name is involved in this case was offered all kinds of deals (to testify) against Imran Khan. Fortunately, no one, neither the businessman nor myself, “I didn’t take up the offer,” he says.
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In addition to being offered big money, Buhari says he has faced various forms of harassment in his homeland in Pakistan. left”.
“It was an attack from two directions: the carrot and the stick.”
Riaz is said to have provided land in Jhelum, Punjab, and the capital, Islamabad, including 458 kanals (approximately 57 acres) acquired for the establishment of Al Qadir University, run by a trust of the same name.
“The Al-Qadir Trust case centers on the establishment of Al-Qadir University, which currently educates over 300 students…It is a non-profit organization…Imran Khan and his wife are not involved in any way. But they are not its beneficiaries. They receive no wages, salaries or employment benefits from this trust. There is no benefit at this time,” Buhari said.
Buhari maintains that the case does not involve any personal financial interest as the funds in question are under the control of the Supreme Court. “The £190 million transferred by businessman Malik Riaz is being heard in the Supreme Court of Pakistan. That money is actually generating interest in the Supreme Court’s account. ,” he says.
“So this whole story that is being spread that the money was spent or put into the accounts of Mr. Malik Riaz, Mr. Imran Khan, his wife or anyone else is complete rubbish. ”
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Khan told the media at Rawalpindi’s Adiyala Prison, where he has been detained since 2023, that Bukhari “offered him a lucrative deal to testify against him in cases like the Al-Qadir Trust”. “But he flatly refused.” “Businesses were destroyed and families evacuated.”
“He was always a key player on my team,” Khan said.
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He added that Bukhari “has not been able to access the case via video link or the embassy because if he comes to Pakistan, the courts will not protect him and he will be arrested or kidnapped and tortured like anyone else. I have requested his appearance in court.” Zulfi Bukhari’s home was illegally raided and destroyed, his family harassed and offered deals. ”
Buhari said he was only added as a defendant because he refused to travel to Pakistan to appear as a witness in court.
Pakistani authorities have consistently denied that the allegations against Khan are politically motivated. In 2023, Information and Broadcasting Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb told BBC News: This has nothing to do with politics. Those who are proven guilty in court must be arrested. ”
Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, whose party orchestrated Khan’s ouster through a no-confidence vote in parliament in 2022, called him a “fraud” and “the biggest liar in Pakistan’s history.”
On Friday, Khan said of the prison corruption conviction: “Today’s verdict has tarnished the reputation of the judiciary. In this case, I have neither gained nor the government lost. I am not seeking any redress. I don’t want that either, and I’ll face all the lawsuits.”
He claimed that “dictators are doing all this.” “My wife is a housewife and has nothing to do with this fraud case. She was given this sentence to infuriate me,” Khan said. “Drawing a housewife into politics is shameful and goes against our traditions. Bushra Begum is a woman with strong nerves and she is not my weakness, but my strength.”
PTI said Mr Khan’s legal team will file an appeal against the verdict in the Al Qadir case in the Islamabad High Court later this week. On Tuesday, they issued a statement saying that if the PTI founder and his wife are not released quickly and Prime Minister Sharif and his allies continue their “obstinacy”, a new political crisis will hit the country. I warned you that it would be.
