Daily Times

Punjab Home Minister Atta Tarar Sunday accused Farah Gogi and her husband Ahsan Jameel Gujjar of corruption, land fraud and running a racket of diamond smuggling and said the couple will be brought back through the Interpol.

Speaking to reporters in Islamabad, Tarar said the government will fulfill all the legal requirements and make all efforts to get red warrants against the couple.

He was flanked by Punjab Minister for Law Malik Muhammad Ahmad Khan.

He accused PTI Chairman Imran Khan, his wife Bushra Bibi and Farah Gogi of looting the national wealth. He said CEO of Faisalabad Industrial Estate Development and Management Company (FIEDMC) Rana Yousuf and Special Economic Zone Committee Secretary Maqsood Ahmed had been arrested by the anti-corruption establishment in a case relating to the illegal allotment of a precious industrial plot to Farah Gogi.

He said a 10-acre industrial plot situated in the Faisalabad Special Economic Zone was allotted to Farah Gogi for only Rs83 million and its actual worth was Rs600 million. The minister said that the plot was transferred to Gogi via a fake company.

A case has been registered in this regard earlier this month, he said, adding that Farah Gogi, her mother Bushra Khan and Ahsan Jameel Gujjar were nominated in the case.

He accused the former first lady of “dealing” in the Prime Minister’s House. “Imran Khan introduced a new system of money laundering in small packets,” he revealed.

He said Imran Khan, along with his wife and Farah Gogi, was running a racket of money laundering via diamonds. Giving details, Tarar said the diamonds in small packets were smuggled abroad and were sold in black markets. He maintained that Imran Khan was leading the group, says a news report.

Talking about a leaked audio call of Bushra Bibi in which she was reportedly directing Imran Khan’s focus person to prove the opponent a traitor, he said that she is the “mastermind”. He said Imran Khan could be arrested for use of drugs adding that the government has no plans to took him into custody. “Who doesn’t know that Imran Khan uses cannabis and how cocaine reaches Bani Gala,” he added. He accused the former first lady of dealing in the Prime Minister’s House. Imran Khan introduced a new system of money laundering in small packets”.

Action will be taken against the former first lady after the arrest of Farah Gogi, the PML-N leader added. Responding to a question about inflation, he said the chief minister will soon announce a relief package. Tarar said the Ministry of Interior had already been communicated with about the issuance of “red warrants”. He also said Farah had sent him a Rs6 billion legal notice, claiming her name was Farhat Shahzadi and she was wrongly referred to as “Gogi” by him during press talks. He said Imran should call Farah back to the country if he had a firm belief that she was innocent. “I must say here that Imran is not bringing her back here because she and her husband will become approvers within an hour of their arrest,” Tarar claimed.

The PML-N leader accused the former prime minister of committing corruption through Farah, who, he said, was responsible for all “dealings”. “Imran is not an ordinary man. His corruption stories are now surfacing and a lot more will be unearthed in the days to come,” Tarar claimed.

Earlier, Punjab Minister for Law Malik Muhammad Ahmad Khan said Pakistan was not under any threat from a “foreign conspiracy” as was the narrative being drummed by the PTI since it was removed from government. He said the former premier would “more aptly” be called “Tosha Khan”, given allegations that he either claimed or sold off gifts given to him by foreign dignitaries instead of depositing them in the state repository known as Toshakhana.

The PML-N leader said while Imran Khan was in power, he praised the army and its chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa and said the government and the institution were on “one page”. “But as soon as it returned to its original position of neutrality, the way Imran Khan badmouthed it, is before you,” said the minister, adding that negativity and evil was attached to neutrality. “[Imran Khan made it be as though] if you remain neutral, you are opposing God and the Quran, and siding with the evil.”

The Punjab minister said Imran Khan is “the only man who thinks he alone is good”. Adnan said, “Pakistan is threatened by an internal conspiracy hatched by Imran Khan as we have no threats of an external conspiracy.” He accused the former PTI government and Imran Khan of transferring “billions of rupees” from digital media wing accounts to retired servicemen, who according to him, were working for the PTI’s social media teams. He was of the view that Imran will have to be answerable for “every wrong he has committed”.

Asked whether his party still held critical views about the army as they held during the elections, Malik said, “Our criticism of the army was political and it was based on interference in [2018] elections. And we had evidence of it.” In response to another query, the provincial law minister said the allegations of Toshakhana against ex-PM Nawaz Sharif were “baseless”. He said any prime minister was entitled to get a vehicle from Toshakana by paying its amount.