{"id":30481,"date":"2023-12-01T19:49:04","date_gmt":"2023-12-01T19:49:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/nab-files-reference-against-imran-bushra-bibi-and-6-others-in-al-qadir-trust-case\/"},"modified":"2023-12-01T19:49:04","modified_gmt":"2023-12-01T19:49:04","slug":"nab-files-reference-against-imran-bushra-bibi-and-6-others-in-al-qadir-trust-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/nab-files-reference-against-imran-bushra-bibi-and-6-others-in-al-qadir-trust-case\/","title":{"rendered":"NAB files reference against Imran, Bushra Bibi and 6 others in Al-Qadir Trust case"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\n<p>The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Friday filed a reference against PTI Chairman Imran Khan and seven others, including the ex-premier\u2019s wife Bushra Bibi and property tycoon Malik Riaz, in connection with the Al-Qadir Trust case.<\/p>\n<p>The case alleges that Imran and his wife obtained billions of rupees and land worth hundreds of kanals from Bahria Town Ltd for legalising Rs50 billion that was identified and returned to the country by the UK during the previous PTI government.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media  sm:w-1\/2  w-full  media--right  media--embed  media--uneven\">\n<p>    <iframe class=\"nk-iframe\" onload=\"setInterval(()=&gt;{try{this.style.height=this.contentWindow.document.body.scrollHeight+'px';}catch{}}, 100)\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" style=\"height:400px;position:relative\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/card\/1751790\" sandbox=\"allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-popups allow-modals allow-forms\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Imran was initially <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1752306\">arrested<\/a> in the case earlier this year from the premises of the Islamabad High Court but was later released after the Supreme Court <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1752306\">declared<\/a> the arrest unlawful.<\/p>\n<p>On Nov 14, the PTI chief, who is already imprisoned in Adiala Jail in the cipher case, was again <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1789110\">arrested<\/a> by the accountability watchdog in the case. He was then <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1790249\">handed over<\/a> to the watchdog on physical remand, before being <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1792992\">sent<\/a> on judicial remand.<\/p>\n<p>The others named in the reference include Farhat Shahzadi, a close friend of Imran\u2019s spouse, former special assistants to the prime minister (SAPM) Mirza Shahzad Akbar and Zulfi Bukhari, legal expert for the PTI government\u2019s Assets Recovery Unit (ARU) Ziaul Mustafa Nasim and Ahmed Riaz.<\/p>\n<p>The accountability watchdog submitted the reference against Imran and others to an accountability court in Islamabad earlier today. It said the \u201caccused [\u2026] were given multiple opportunities to justify and provide information, but they deliberately, with malafide intention, refused to provide the information on one or the other pretext.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFurthermore, it is established through their responses that they have nothing in their defence to rebut the above-mentioned allegations. Thus, they all have committed an offence\u201d under the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO).<\/p>\n<p>It added that the investigation proceedings and findings so far \u201cestablished that accused persons in connivance with each other have committed the offence of corruption and corrupt practices\u201d as defined under the NAO.<\/p>\n<p>The reference said Imran played a \u201cpivotal role\u201d in the illicit transfer of funds which were meant for the state which ultimately benefited Riaz.<\/p>\n<p>Akbar, the former SAPM and Asset Recovery Unit chief, played a \u201ccrucial role\u201d in the \u201cillegal design of the funds\u201d which were meant for the state, the reference said.<\/p>\n<p>Malik, the reference said, had \u201cactively aided, abetted and assisted and acted in conspiracy\u201d with the other respondents for the diversion of funds earmarked for the state.<\/p>\n<p>Bushra Bibi and Shahzadi also played a \u201csignificant\u201d and \u201ccrucial\u201d role in the \u201cillegal activities\u201d, the latter also a \u201cfront woman\u201d for Imran and his wife, it said.<\/p>\n<p>The reference said that it was \u201cjust and proper\u201d to proceed against the eight suspects as there was \u201csufficient incriminating evidence\u201d available to justify the reference.<\/p>\n<p>It pleaded that the eight suspects be tried and punished in accordance with the law by the court or any other to which the reference was entrusted.<\/p>\n<h2><a id=\"the-case\" href=\"#the-case\" class=\"heading-permalink\" aria-hidden=\"true\" title=\"Permalink\"\/>The case<\/h2>\n<p>The case relates to the alleged illegal acquisition of land for and construction of Al-Qadir University involving unlawful benefit given in the recovery of prime proceeds (140 million pounds) through the UK\u2019s National Crime Agency (NCA) in a money laundering case against real estate tycoon Riaz and his family.<\/p>\n<p>Imran is also accused of misleading the cabinet by concealing the facts related to the settlement agreement. Money was received under the settlement agreement (140m pounds) and was supposed to be deposited in the national exchequer. But it was adjusted in the recovery of Rs450bn liabilities of Bahria Town Karachi (BTK).<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this year, former interior minister Rana Sanaullah had <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1751792\">accused Imran and his wife<\/a> of accepting Rs50bn and hundreds of kanals of land for protecting the real estate firm in a money laundering case.<\/p>\n<p>He had alleged that Bahria Town \u201cillegally transferred\u201d Rs50bn to a Pakistani national in the UK. The transfer was identified by the UK\u2019s NCA, which subsequently informed the then PTI government of the crime, Sanaullah had said.<\/p>\n<p>The PML-N leader had claimed that Imran, the prime minister at the time, had tasked Akbar, ex-PM\u2019s aide on accountability, to resolve the matter. Akbar \u201csettled\u201d the entire case, while the Rs50bn \u2014 which was state property and belonged to the national treasury \u2014 was adjusted against Bahria Town\u2019s liability, the interior minister had alleged.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media  sm:w-1\/2  w-full  media--right  media--embed  media--uneven\">\n<p>    <iframe class=\"nk-iframe\" onload=\"setInterval(()=&gt;{try{this.style.height=this.contentWindow.document.body.scrollHeight+'px';}catch{}}, 100)\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" style=\"height:400px;position:relative\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/card\/1758443\" sandbox=\"allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-popups allow-modals allow-forms\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>According to Sanaullah, Bahria Town had donated hundreds of acres of land to Al-Qadir Trust, with the agreement bearing signatures of the real estate developer\u2019s donors and Imran\u2019s wife.<\/p>\n<p>He said the non-profit organisation had only two trustees: Imran and his wife. The minister added that another 240 kanals were transferred to \u201cFarah Shehzadi\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>It is pertinent to mention that the Supreme Court on Nov 23 had <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1792022\">ordered<\/a> that an amount of Rs35bn, which was remitted to the apex court\u2019s bank accounts maintained in the name of the SC registrar, in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1471002\">Bahria Town settlement<\/a>, be transferred to the federal government.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Friday filed a reference against PTI Chairman Imran Khan and seven others, including the ex-premier\u2019s wife Bushra Bibi and property tycoon Malik Riaz, in connection with the Al-Qadir Trust case. The case alleges that Imran and his wife obtained billions of rupees and land worth hundreds of kanals from [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30482,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2023\/12\/011846555d2a2ea.png?r=184814","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[192],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-islamabad-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}