Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Reacting to reports concerning Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s assets details, the party Saturday clarified that the PPP chief had submitted tax returns of the last three years with his nomination papers.

“All properties and businesses that have been declared by Bilawal were inherited from his family. As for those questioning how Bilawal House Karachi is worth Rs 3 million, it should be mentioned that under Section 116 of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001 all assets [whether purchased of inherited] should be valued at cost,” said Senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar, the newly appointed spokesman for the PPP scion.

“The PPP chairman inherited Bilawal House Karachi in early 90s and at that time it was valued at Rs 3 million,” the spokesman said after the assets details of Bilawal came into question. Khokhar said that around 70 candidates would contest elections against Bilawal in all three constituencies that he would be contesting from. Copies of his nomination papers were taken by all other contesting candidates, including those from the PTI, JUI, MQM, PML-N and MMA among others, and none of them had raised any objection whatsoever. He said that the PPP chairman had followed the law in letter and spirit while filing his nomination papers.

Published in Daily Times, June 24^th 2018.