By An accountability court in Rawalpindi has dismissed the National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) plea for a 10-day physical remand of Imran Khan, Chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), in the £190 million settlement case.
The hearing unfolded at Adiala Jail, where Judge Muhammad Bashir presided over the proceedings. Despite a written request from NAB Prosecutor Muzaffar Abbasi for a 10-day physical remand, the judge ruled in favor of a judicial remand for the former premier.
Salman Safdar, the PTI chairman’s legal counsel, opposed the physical remand and filed a counter-judicial remand request.
Judge Bashir highlighted that the NAB team could interrogate Imran in Adiala Jail, where he is already detained in the cipher case. Consequently, Imran Khan will remain in judicial remand.
On the same day, the government granted authorization to the legal ministry’s plea for conducting a trial of the former prime minister within the confines of a prison setting. Following this approval, NAB’s team arrived at Adiala Jail, seeking Imran’s physical remand in both the Toshakhana and £190 million settlement cases.
A significant development preceding the court’s decision was the government’s approval of the law ministry’s request for an in-prison trial of the former prime minister in the case. This set the stage for NAB’s team to seek Imran’s physical remand in both the Toshakhana and £190 million settlement cases at Adiala Jail.
A day earlier, NAB had pressed for the implementation of the accountability court’s arrest warrants against the PTI chief in the two cases.
The £190 million settlement case involves the alleged laundering of money belonging to a property tycoon during Imran’s government in 2019. The UK authorities caught wind of the funds, leading to the arrest of the ex-prime minister on May 9, 2019, marking the first time he faced charges in this case.
Former Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah, in a press conference at the time of Imran’s arrest, claimed that the money, according to law, belonged to the Pakistani nation and should have been deposited in the national exchequer.
Sanaullah alleged that Shahzad Akbar, the then adviser to the prime minister, formed the Al-Qadir Trust as a front to conceal corruption.
Sanaullah asserted that Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi were the sole trustees of the trust. Land in Sohawa and Bani Gala, registered under the trust, raised suspicions of corruption.
The minister accused Akbar of taking Rs2 billion for his services and claimed that the funds, instead of reaching the national treasury, ended up in the bank account of the Supreme Court.
The complexity of the transaction, according to Sanaullah, was orchestrated to deceive the public, as the accused property tycoon was under trial at the time.
In a surprising turn of events, the accountability court’s rejection of the physical remand signifies a twist in Imran Khan’s legal battle, bringing the £190 million settlement case further into the spotlight.
