ISLAMABAD: A local court, on Thursday, extended interim bail of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman’s wife Bushra Bibi till September 12 in a case registered against her and others for allegedly submitting fake receipts for buying and selling items obtained from Toshakhana.
Additional Sessions Judge Islamabad Tahir Abbas Sipra, while hearing the case regarding fake receipts, extended the interim bail of Bushra Bibi. Khan’s wife appeared in the court along with lawyers, Salman Safdar, Intizar Panjotha, and Naeem Panjotha.
Kohsar police station registered a first information report (FIR) against Imran Khan, Bushra Bibi, and PTI leader Zulfi Bukhari under various sections of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) including section 420 for allegedly presenting fake receipts for buying and selling items obtained from the state’s gift repository known as Toshakhana.
During the hearing, the investigation officer (IO) of the case told the court that he required the arrest of the accused. The audio of the accused had been sent to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) for forensics, he said.
Safdar, Bushra Bibi’s counsel told the court that they were called and kept sitting there for three hours. He said they had clarified to the IO that the said audio was not of Bushra Bibi.
To this, the judge asked the IO if the matter related to receipts, and from where did the audio come. The IO requested the court to grant time for the voice matching of Bushra Bibi. The court accepted the request of the IO.
The court, after hearing arguments, extended Bushra Bibi’s interim bail till September 12.
Meanwhile, Khan’s wife appeared before the National Accountability Bureau (NAB)’s Combined Investigation Team (CIT) to record her statement in Toshakhana case registered against Imran Khan and others.
The NAB had summoned Bushra Bibi to appear before it on August 29 to record her statement but she did not join the investigation.
The NAB’s summon states, the investigation proceedings have revealed that during your husband’s tenure in office as prime minister, you, being the wife of the former prime minister, received one locket with chain, a pair of eartaps, two rings, and a pair of bracelet, one necklace, one bracelet, one ring and pair of earrings, ring and bracelet watch from foreign dignitaries amounting millions of rupees and retained these gifts against meager retention cost based on undervalued assessment/appraisement. Gift assets received by you were not deposited in Toshakhana for fair price assessment in contravention of rule and procedure, it says.
The notice says that gifted state assets were retained without fair price assessment; hence, you in connivance with your co-accused Imran Khan misappropriated gifted state assets and gained pecuniary benefit.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
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