After being ousted, former Pakistan PM Imran Khan seems to be in troubled water over rampant corruption. The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Thursday green signalled a thorough investigation into the illegal wealth of Farah Khan, a close friend of Khan’s wife Bushra Bibi. The NAB said that Farah had accumulated illegal assets beyond the known source of income since 2018.
The NAB in its official statement noted that accounts of Farah Khan had displayed a huge turnover of around Rs 847 million in the past three years. It added that Khan earned her wealth through an unknown source of income as the numbers in her stated accounts did not match with that of the accounts of years before Imran Khan’s government came to power.
“These credits were received in her personal account and withdrawn immediately after credit within a short time period,” it stated. The anti-graft body also stated that Khan had frequently travelled to foreign jurisdictions – nine times to the USA and six times to the UAE. Amid the allegations of corruption, however, Khan left for Dubai on April 5 this year. Her husband had left the country already.
According to the reports, the NAB suspects that the Farah Khan has earned more financial wealth after the Imran Khan government came into power. Earlier, Farah Khan was seen flaunting her handbag costing $90000 on one of her flights to foreign countries.
However, the saga of corruption is not limited to Farah Khan. Income earned by her family members including her husband, sister and father-in-law is also under the NAB scanner.
It is important to note that former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan is also being accused of massive corruption. Reports mention that Khan has looted the Pakistan government for more than Rs 40 crores (Pakistani currency). He employed 72-year-old lawyer Abdul Latif Yousufzai at the behest of the then speaker of the National Assembly Asad Kaisar Imran. The per month salary amount approved to Yousufzai was Rs 19 lakh (Pakistani currency). According to the reports, last year, the Pakistani government budget approved Rs 30 lakh to Yousufzai for sundry expenses inclusive of salary.
Also, it is worth noting that Imran Khan had appointed more than 200 people in the Parliament secretariat at salaries that counted more than usual pay and all the appointed personnel were either his relatives or his close aides. Further, Khan in the year 2019 built a dream institution- Al Qadir University at the cost of Rs 56 crores (Pakistani currency) and appointed his wife Bushra Bibi as one of its Trustee members. The university that receives millions of rupees in the form of donations houses only 37 students today.
Reportedly, Al Qadir management claims to be a university, but has not yet been recognized by the Punjab Higher Education Department. The trust has received donations amounting to Rs 180 million (Pakistani currency) from January 2021 to December 2021. From July 2020 to June 2021, the total income of the trust was Rs 101 million (Pakistani currency) and the total expenditure including the salaries of the staff and workers was around Rs 8.58 million (Pakistani currency).
The anti-graft body has also approved a supplementary reference against former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, his son Abdullah Khaqan Abbasi, Finance Minister Miftah Ismail and others, alleging that they had awarded the LNG Terminal-1 contract through ‘non-transparent sources’.
