ISLAMABAD: A district and sessions court in Islamabad on Tuesday adjourned the hearing of the foreign gifts reference against former prime minister Imran Khan until December 8 after recording a district election commissioner’s statement.
Additional Sessions Judge Zafar Iqbal presided over Tuesday’s hearing before whom District Election Commissioner Waqas Malik gave his statement. The district election commissioner said he had been authorized to pursue the case.
He added that the ECP was an independent institution that functioned under the Constitution and ensured that corrupt practices were curtailed.
Malik further said members of the National Assembly submitted their returns to the ECP annually. Khan, too, submitted his returns from 2018 to 2021, he added. The hearing was adjourned till December 8.
Toshakhana — a department under the administrative control of the Cabinet Division — stores precious gifts given to the head of state, MPs, bureaucrats and officials by heads of other governments, states and foreign dignitaries.
According to Toshakhana rules, gifts and other such material received by persons to whom these rules apply shall be reported to the Cabinet Division.
The reference had been moved against Khan by the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) on August 4 for not “sharing details” of foreign gifts and proceeds from their alleged sale.
Last week, the ECP sent the reference to the court, asking it to proceed against Khan under criminal law for allegedly misleading officials about the gifts he received from foreign dignitaries during his tenure as the prime minister. The commission seeks a three-year jail term and imposition of a fine as the punishment.
The complainant in the reference is the Islamabad deputy election commissioner. The reference stated that Khan had “deliberately concealed his assets relating to Toshakhna gifts retained by him, particularly in 2018 and 2019 in the statements of assets and liabilities filed for the year 2017-201 8 and 2018-19”.
