Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan. File | Photo credit: Reuters
“An accountability court has extended by 11 days the physical remand of jailed former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi in the new Toshakhana corruption case,” media reports said on Friday (August 9, 2024).
The hearing, presided over by Justice Nasir Javed Rana of the Accountability Court, took place on August 8, 2024 at the makeshift courtroom set up in the high-security Adiala Prison in Rawalpindi. The Express Stand newspaper reported.
Judge Rana approved the extension of the former first couple’s remand by 11 days after the expiry of their 10-day physical remand in the new Toshakhana corruption case.
Imran Khan (71) has now been imprisoned in the Adiala prison for over a year after his conviction in several cases. His wife, 49-year-old Bibi, is also in prison with him.
The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) told the court that the suspect had cooperated with the investigation team only twice during the previous ten days of remand. The anti-corruption watchdog requested an additional fourteen days’ physical remand to complete the investigation.
“However, after hearing the arguments, the court granted an extension of the pre-trial detention by 11 days and postponed the hearing to August 19,” the report said. Imran Khan and his wife have already spent 24 days in remand in connection with the new Toshakhana corruption case.
In the case, the NAB accused the former couple of buying a jewelery set from the Toshakhana and selling it by violating the laws. Toshakhana is a storehouse where gifts presented by foreign officials to government officials are kept.
As per the Toshakhana Rules, gifts/presents and other similar materials received by persons subject to these rules must be reported to the Cabinet Division. The NAB filed the new Toshakhana case a few hours after a district and sessions court quashed their conviction in their un-Islamic marriage case last month.
The court’s brief order stated that the two should be released immediately unless they were wanted in other cases. After the hearing on Thursday, Pakistan’s former prime minister told reporters that the ruling coalition government led by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party would collapse within two months.
“These fools do not understand that this government has no more than two months. The government will collapse in two months,” he said in the report. “I have a lot of time (at my disposal), but they (the rulers) are running out of time,” he added.
He said he would not make a deal with those in power no matter how long the government kept him behind bars. “A deal is made by someone who has committed a crime. I have no money stashed abroad nor do I own any property abroad. the country,” he said.
“I have fought all things against me and will continue to fight. The purpose of filing cases against me and my wife was to break the PTI (Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf). (The) NAB has filed four cases against me. for Toshakhana gifts,” he added.
Imran Khan also said he had not apologized for the May 9 riots, which broke out after Pakistan Rangers arrested him at the Islamabad High Court building during his appearance in a corruption case.
“I have not offered any unconditional apology. Over the past twelve months I have said that the CCTV footage [of May 9 incidents] should be released,” he said.
“If this shows that PTI workers were involved in riots, I will apologize, expel them from the party and ensure they are punished. Am I crazy if I tell my people to attack the army?” he added. He is facing more than 200 cases and has been convicted in some of them. Although the former cricketer-turned-politician has been granted bail or had his conviction quashed, he has not been released.
