PImran Khan, former Prime Minister of Akistan and leader of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf Party, has finally been sentenced to 14 years in prison in a corruption case. The decision was delayed for several days, leading many to wonder whether this was due to ongoing negotiations between the country’s powerful military and the PTI leadership, and whether Mr. Khan was trying to get relief. I was thinking. The final verdict, in which the PTI leader’s wife Bushra Bibi was also sentenced to seven years in prison, was sure to disappoint many supporters who were unfazed by the verdict and unwilling to consider the merits of the case.
The ruling does not necessarily mean the end of dialogue between the military and Khan. Indeed, from the establishment’s point of view, this judgment aims to create space both externally and internally. The government intends to use the ruling in its arguments with other countries, particularly over concerns that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump could pressure Islamabad over Khan by citing the judicial process. . Similarly, military leaders could use this to pressure Mr. Khan to agree to their demands – which he must do if he wants to avoid jail. If he agrees to Army GHQ’s request, the decision could be held up pending an appeals process in the future. Simply put, the military wants PTI leaders to move to their homes in Islamabad’s Bani Gala and wait patiently until the next elections are announced, which could be years away.
Land, money and NCA
This particular incident is important. Because, according to my sources at the National Accounts Office, Pakistan’s main anti-corruption agency, this is the only case in which they have evidence of Mr. Khan’s involvement in financial mismanagement. The case concerns the transfer of valuable land to Dubai by real estate tycoon Malik Riaz, who is currently in exile in Dubai. Al Qadir Trust. Khan, his wife, and her close friend Farhat Shahzadi, commonly known as Farah Gogi, were the trustees of the trust.
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Mr. Riaz is known to have bribed political and military officials, and reportedly gave land to Mr. Khan and his wife to open a spiritual education college. The gift coincided with Khan’s government allowing £190 million previously frozen in Riaz’s UK account by the UK National Crime Agency (NCA) to be transferred to his account in Pakistan. This was done to enable the real estate mogul to repay a debt he owes to Pakistan’s Supreme Court as part of a settlement in a separate case in which he was accused of illegally occupying public land in Sindh province..
Rumors have long been circulating that the NCA may have authorized transfers from personal accounts to Supreme Court accounts under a secret agreement with Khan’s chief, Emperor Shahzad Akbar, but the government There is no record of that. The British government has never spoken about the incident or the secret agreement. Mr Akbar, whom I spoke to in London, denies any agreement between the government and Riaz, and denies that £190 million was seized by the NCA as laundered funds.
Mr Akbar calls for the accounts of Nawaz Sharif and his sons to be frozen and for an investigation into the transactions, particularly the sale by one of Mr Sharif’s sons of a £45m property near London’s Hyde Park to Riaz The NCA claims that it initially blocked suspicious transactions. Transactions from the United Arab Emirates to an account held in the name of Riaz’s son, Ali Riaz. Interestingly, Mr. Akbar, who had been appointed as acting military intelligence to hold the former rulers to account, reportedly failed to prove any wrongdoing in the initial land purchase by the Sharif family. Ta.
Meanwhile, the NCA has frozen other accounts held by Riaz and his family. In fact, the British real estate mogul’s funds were falsely flagged, even though that was not the true intention of Khan’s government. However, as Mr. Akbar further claimed, it would take a significant amount of time for the NCA to prove that the Pakistani government had illegally laundered money from Mr. Riaz from the country, so the Mr. Akbar-led NAB told the UK NCA: It encouraged Riaz to send funds to Pakistan. Pakistan uses a personal account. Prima facie, Mr. Akbar can argue that the money laundering case against Riaz was never proven by the NCA and the money was legally transferred to Riaz to settle his legal fees. There was clearly something suspicious about Akbar’s handling of the case by not allowing NAB to investigate Riaz’s transfer to Britain.
Interestingly, no government has ever been so keen to investigate the tycoon’s financial dealings. I remember my year at NAB in 2011. The then NAB Director General (retired) Admiral Fashi Bokhari used to visit Riaz regularly, even though it was against rules to have personal contact with the ‘targets’ under investigation. At that time, Malik Riaz acted as one of the liaisons between the then army chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kiyani and the Pakistan Peoples Party government.
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Tough days for the government
All the suspects in the case (Malik Riaz, Shahzad Akbar and PTI executive member Zulfikar Bukhari) have been declared criminals and have not appeared in court to give any statement. The government remains skeptical about how Khan solved the case. Mr. Riaz, Mr. Buhari and Mr. Akbar remain abroad and have refused to return to Pakistan to give statements, which is itself a flaw in the case that will likely be discussed in the appellate court.
The Al-Qadir Trust scandal shows that the prime minister was confident in his clean reputation, without considering conflicts of interest and the fact that national law does not allow gifts to public officials, even for charity. It’s about having too much. . Especially if it comes with a return benefit. On the other hand, Mr. Khan’s confidence is not misplaced, as his supporters are unwilling to believe that he is complicit in corruption cases. Despite the verdict, Mr. Khan’s supporters and millions of other Pakistanis continue to listen as he denounces the government.authoritarian” and came out of the courtroom after the sentencing.
Apparently, negotiations between the military and PTI leaders have not made any progress. Members of the media I spoke to said they could not accept the option for Mr. Khan to sit quietly at home, which would jeopardize his brand of politics: his insistence that he would not surrender to a corrupt and repressive regime. He claims that he cannot accept it because it means telling him. In fact, this ruling will mean even tougher days for the regime, which is unable to deal with severe security challenges due to poor domestic politics. Some may wonder whether the military can afford to keep Khan imprisoned for 14 years.
Aisha Sidika is a Senior Research Fellow in the Department of War Studies at King’s College, London. She is the author of Military Inc. I am tweeting @iamthedrifter. Views are personal.
(Edited by Ratan Priya)
