Says Farah Gogi to be brought back to Pakistan before December
ISLAMABAD
Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) Ataullah Tarar on Wednesday warned ex-prime minister Imran Khan that the federal government would take strict action against him on selling gifts he received as the prime minister from Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman.
Attaullah Tarar has unveiled the facts behind a rare and priceless watch-set gift, containing pen and cufflinks embodied with 12.24 karat diamonds, which was handed over to former prime minister Imran Khan by the Saudi Crown Prince but the PTI chairman sold it out in a ‘criminal way’ without realizing ‘importance and uniqueness of the gift.
“It is the only watch got prepared by the Saudi Crown Prince for gifting to Pakistan, so its price can’t be matched with other ones. Its unique dial is of Khana Ka’aba (Baitullah Sharif) shape,” he said while showing documentary evidence of the gift’s details and the price evaluation.
He said as per rules, any gift received from abroad was first deposited in the ‘Toshakhana’ and later on another procedure of market evaluation was carried out if the recipient wanted to keep it. “But nothing such thing happened in this case.”
However, he said, as per the market evaluation that had been carried out in a thorough professional and technical way, its price stood at around $12 million, almost Rs 1.7 billion at that time and now Rs 2 billion. He said Imran Khan bought the watch set at Rs 20 million only, without adopting the laid down procedure.
“And now, he (Imran) has confessed to committing two crimes which are buying and selling it. He regretted that the unique gift was not meant to sell in the open market as it was given as a gesture of great love and respect to Pakistan.
He demanded Imran Khan to tender his resignation from the chairmanship of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf as he had been declared a certified thief after selling the “made to order” watch in the market. He believed that the gift given by the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia to Imran Khan was for the people of Pakistan.
He said the federal government will file a case against Imran for selling the expensive watch while they also decide to issue an arrest warrant against Farah Gogi – who is considered a confidante of Imran Khan’s wife Bushra Bibi and was allegedly involved in corruption during PTI tenure.
SAPM claimed that the federal government would bring her back to Pakistan before December. About the Daily Mail case, he said, that the trial of the case would start next year.
To a question, he said that the provision of security to Imran Khan during the long march was the responsibility of the Punjab government. He said that FIR should be registered against Chief Minister Punjab Pervaiz Elahi for the security lapse.
