ISLAMABAD: An accountability court announced on Monday that the reserved judgment in the £190 million case against former prime minister and his wife Bushra Bibi will be delivered on January 6 next year.
The judgment, which was reserved on December 18, was to be pronounced today (December 23). However, the court, earlier in the day, had decided to postpone it.
Also known as the Al-Qadir Trust Case, the former prime minister and his wife Bushra and others have been accused by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) of causing a loss of £190 million to the national exchequer through a settlement between the two. PTI government and property tycoon.
During the year-long trial, NAB recorded the testimonies of 35 witnesses, including former Principal Secretary Azam Khan, former Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak and former federal minister Zubaidah Jalal.
The said case is part of the plethora of legal challenges facing the jailed PTI founder who has been behind bars since August last year after being convicted in Tosha Khana Case-I.
NAB Reference
The anti-corruption watchdog had filed a reference against Khan, Bushra and others in December 2023 over the alleged settlement.
According to the charges in the case, Khan and the other accused allegedly stole 50 billion rupees from the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) to the Pakistani government as part of a deal with a property tycoon – at the time £ 190 million adjusted.
Subsequently, the then Prime Minister approved the settlement with the UK Crime Agency from his Cabinet on 3 December 2019, without disclosing details of the secret agreement.
It was decided that the money would be deposited in the Supreme Court on behalf of the tycoon.
According to NAB officials, the founder of PTI and his wife acquired land worth billions of rupees from a property tycoon to build an educational institution, in return for which an agreement was signed to provide legal protection to the property tycoon’s black money. .
Later, a few weeks after the PTI-led government approved the deal with the property tycoon, Al-Qadir Trust was set up in Islamabad.
Hearing of the case
The accountability watchdog had arrested PTI founder on November 13 last year in connection with the said case. After that, NAB interrogated Khan and Bushra in Adiala Jail for 17 days.
After filing the NAB reference on December 1, 2023, the trial began. On February 27, 2024, charges were formally laid against the couple.
Notable witnesses against the PTI founder included his former cabinet member Pervez Khattak, former federal minister Zubaidah Jalal, former principal secretary Azam Khan and the chief financial officer of Al-Qadri University.
The court declared 6 co-accused, including Zulfi Bukhari, Farhat Shahzadi, Mirza Shahzad Akbar and Zia-ul-Mustafa Naseem as fugitives, and ordered the freezing of their assets and bank accounts.
During the proceedings, the Islamabad High Court granted bail to the disqualified prime minister in the £190 million reference, while the trial court granted Bushra’s pre-arrest bail.
The founder chairman of PTI submitted a list of 16 witnesses in the court, but the request to summon them was rejected.
During the course of the case, four judges were replaced with Judge Muhammad Bashir, Judge Nasir Javed Rana, Judge Muhammad Ali Waraich, and then again Judge Rana presiding over the hearings.