Daily Times

An accountability court on Wednesday reserved its verdict in the £190 million A;-Qadir Trust corruption reference against former prime minister Imran Khan and his spouse, Bushra Bibi.

The prosecution completed final arguments in the case a day ago while the defence wrapped its reasoning today after which Accountability Judge Nasir Javed Rana reserved his verdict, which will be announced on December 23 (Monday).

In December, the National Accou­n­t­a­bility Bureau (NAB) had filed a corruption reference against Imran and seven others, including his wife, in connection with the Al-Qadir University.

The case alleges that Imran and Bushra Bibi obtained billions of rupees and land worth hundreds of kanals from Bahria Town Ltd for legalising Rs50 billion that was identified and returned to the country by the UK during the previous PTI government.

The reference filed by NAB alleged that Imran, who is currently in jail, played a “pivotal role in the illicit transfer of funds meant for the state of Pakistan into an account designated for the payment of land by Bahria Town, Karachi”. It also claimed that despite being given multiple opportunities to justify and provide information, the accused deliberately, with mala fide intention, refused to give information on one pretext or another.

Property tycoon Malik Riaz Hussain and his son Ahmed Ali Riaz, Mirza Shehzad Akbar, and Zulfi Bukhari are also among the suspects in this reference, but instead of joining the investigation and subsequent court proceedings, they absconded and were subsequently declared proclaimed offenders (PO).

Farhat Shahzadi, a close friend of Imran’s spouse, and Ziaul Mustafa Nasim, a legal expert for the PTI government’s Assets Recovery Unit, were also declared POs. Subsequently, the properties of all six accused had been frozen. The couple were indicted in the case in February.