ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman and former prime minister Imran Khan submitted “false documents” and a “false statement” to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), a prosecution witness said while testifying before a local court in Toshakhana case against PTI chief on Thursday.
The prosecution witness, Wiqas Malik, District Election Commissioner, while recording his statement before Additional Sessions Judge Humayun Dilawar in the Toshakhana case against the PTI chairman, said that fact shows that PTI chief Imran Khan submitted “false documents and a false statement” before the ECP.
He further said that the PTI chief in 2019-20 had adopted a stance before the ECP that he had purchased three precious gifts from the Toshakhana. The accused had himself stated that he had not shown the three gifts in the assets details of 2019-20, he further said.
The witness said that if a gift is transferred to a person from Toshakhana, it must be recorded in Form B of the ECP. The accused neither mentioned the transfer of gifts in Form B of the ECP nor the value of these gifts, he said.
During the hearing, Khan’s counsel, Khawaja Haris raised the objection that ECP counsel Amjad Pervez is putting words in the mouth of the witness. The witness further said that the fact shows that the PTI chief has given “a false statement” before the ECP.
He told the court that he was appointed as district election commissioner in 2022. The ECP through a letter on November 7, 2022, authorised him to file a complaint against the PTI chief under the Election Commission Act, he said, adding that the speaker National Assembly had forwarded a reference to the ECP.
To this, Haris said that the reference had not been sent to the complainant. The ECP issued a notice to the PTI chief on the speaker’s reference and the PTI chief submitted a reply to the ECP notice, the witness said.
He said that the PTI chief had provided detail of his assets in his assets statements for the years 2018, 19, 20, and 2021.
Haris again objected to the procedure of recording the statement of the witness. The ECP counsel himself readout the statement to the witness, he said, adding that the ECP counsel is telling the witness what he will say before the court. The ECP counsel said that the case is based on documents, therefore, the witness could not give his opinion.
The witness said that the Toshakhana record of the PTI chief consists of 16 pages. To this, the ECP counsel said that the record consists of 116 pages.
The prosecution witness further said that the accused in 2018-19 told the ECP that he gets four gifts from Toshakhana and submitted a challan of Rs 21.5 million. The Toshakahana estimated the value of these gifts at over Rs 107 million, while the accused adopted the stance that he sold these gifts at Rs 58 million in 2018-19.
He said that according to the statement of the PTI chief, he submitted the said amount in his Bank Alfalah account. The PTI chairman adopted the stance that he had sold out the gifts due to which he did not mention it in the Form B of the ECP, he said.
During the hearing, the PTI chief’s legal team and ECP’s counsel exchanged harsh words. The judge asked all lawyers besides Khawaja Haris and Amjad Pervez to sit on their seats. The witness further said that the ECP compared the PTI chairman’s statement with Toshakhana’s records and bank statements. It is established from the record that the PTI chairman submitted the last challan for buying Toshakhana gifts on January 22, 2019, he said.
Haris, while objecting to the witness statement, said that the ECP’s decision has nothing to do with the trial of the case. After the completion of the statement of the first witness, the court summoned the second witness namely, Deputy Director confidential ECP Mussadiq Malik to record his statement.
Objecting to the position of the second witness, Khawaja Haris said that the position of the witness is not written in the documents, instead of confidential, ECP Finance Wing is written in the documents.
The witness, while recording his statement, said that he reviewed the 231-pages bank statements of the chairman PTI, adding that he supervised the assets statements of chairman PTI for 2018-2019, 2019-2020, and 2020-21. I brought the original documents of the assets statements to the court, he said.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
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