ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Tuesday described the defamation notice issued by the Omni Group as baseless, illegal, fake and absolutely wrong, asking the Omni Group to immediately withdraw the notice and tender an unconditional apology.
In his reply to the legal notice under the defamation ordinance, 2002 dated 21st November 2022, sent through Barrister Hassan Khan Niazi and Barrister Mian Waleed Ashraf, Imran Khan provided details of the plea bargain made by Omni Group with NAB.
In his reply, Imran Khan said that the notice was completely flawed in law, which did not meet the rules and regulations of the Defamation Ordinance 2002.
The PTI chairman said that in July 2018, the JIT investigation report, formed on the orders of the Supreme Court, revealed the close relationship between Omni Group, Zardari Group and Bahria Town.
“A plea bargain was entered and approved by the accountability court amounting to Rs9 billion, which again is an admitted fact,” it reads. The breakdown of the plea bargain in six cases showed that plea bargain for an amount of Rs2,129.789 million was approved by the respected accountability court in reference No 2/2019 State Vs Hussain Lawai.
Similarly, he said that plea bargain for an amount of Rs200 million was approved by an accountability court in reference No 14/2019 State Vs Manzoor Qadir Kaka and plea bargain for an amount of Rs1,563.019 million was approved by an accountability court in reference No 4/2019 State Vs Khawaja Anwer Majdeed.
Plea bargain for an amount of Rs31.794 million was approved by an accountability court in transactions of Rs8.3 billion from Bahria Town through the Joint Account of APS Mushtaq Ahmed and Zain Malik into fake accounts and plea bargain for an amount of Rs170 million was approved by an accountability court in taking Rs1.22 billion kickbacks in JV Opal-225 by Zardari Group, it was stated.
Moreover, he said that plea bargain for an amount of Rs4955.95 million was approved by an accountability court in a transaction made from the accounts of M/s Bahria Town (Pvt) Ltd and Joint Accounts of Zain Malik and Mushtaq Ahmed into fake accounts.
In light of the above facts, the statement given by Imran Khan that a plea bargain was entered to the tune of Rs9 billion stands true; hence, the notice under reply was unfounded, illegal, frivolous and incorrect,” it reads.
“Therefore, the notice sent by Omni Group is baseless, illegal, fake and completely wrong, thus Omni Group should withdraw its notice immediately and tender apology to Chairman PTI,” it was stated.
