Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan was handed a three-year prison sentence on Saturday by an Islamabad court in connection with the Toshakhana case – which is concerned with the improper acquisition of state gifts.
This verdict will consequently result in the disqualification of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief from participating in politics for the next five years. Khan was arrested from his Lahore house soon after the verdict was handed down by the court, as per Pakistani media reports.
“Police have arrested Imran Khan from his residence. We are filing a petition against the decision in high court,” Khan’s lawyer Advocate Intezar Panjotha told news agency Reuters.
Other than the prison sentence, an additional fine of Rs 1 lakh has been imposed on Khan by Additional Judge Humayun Dilawar of the Islamabad sessions court, and failure to pay the fine could result in an additional six months of imprisonment.
The complaint relating to the Toshakhana case was initially lodged against Imran Khan on October 21 last year, and he was officially charged in this case on May 10. Imran Khan was removed from power after losing a no-confidence vote in his leadership in April 2022. After being removed from power, a total of 76 cases had been filed against him, Imran Khan said.
In May, he was apprehended by Pakistan’s anti-corruption agency on allegations of involvement in a separate corruption case. He denied all the allegations against him and was granted bail by the court within a few days.
During his tenure as the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan received five expensive wristwatches, including a Graff watch valued at 3.8 million Pakistani rupees (PKR), equivalent to around ₹12 lakh, as revealed by government data. In October 2018, Khan retained these gifts after paying a sum of PKR 250,000 (₹73,500).
In September 2018, Khan retained various items, including a Graff wristwatch valued at PKR 85 million (₹2.5 crore), a pair of cufflinks worth PKR 5.6 million (₹16.5 lakh), a pen worth PKR 1.5 million (₹4.4 lakh), and a ring worth PKR 8.75 million (₹26 lakh), for which he paid PKR 20 million (₹59 lakh).
The data released by the government also showed that Khan retained a Rolex watch worth PKR 1.5 million for PKR 294,000 (₹86,500) in October 2018. In November of the same year, he kept another Rolex, assessed at PKR 900,000 (₹2.6 lakh), and paid PKR 338,600 (₹1 lakh) for this along with other items.
In October 2019, he retained a boxed watch valued at PKR 1.9 million (₹5.6 lakh) for PKR 935,000 (₹2.8 lakh). In September 2020, a Rolex assessed at PKR 4.4 million (₹13 lakh) was retained for PKR 2.4 million (₹7 lakh), which included the cost of other received gifts.
Similarly, Imran Khan’s wife Bushra Bibi held onto a necklace worth PKR 10 million (₹30 lakh), a bracelet worth PKR 2.4 million (₹7 lakh), a ring worth PKR 2.8 million (₹8.3 lakh), and a pair of earrings worth PKR 1.85 million (₹5.4 lakh), for which she paid PKR 9 million (₹26.5 lakh) in September 2020.
The disclosure of this data coincides with the Pakistan government’s revision of its Toshakhana policy, which now sets a limit of under $300 (₹24,800) for gifts received by top government officials.
Pakistan has made public the specifics of foreign gifts held by public office holders, including presidents, prime ministers, federal cabinet members, politicians, bureaucrats, retired generals, judges, and journalists, spanning the period from 2002 to 2022. These details have been updated on the website of the Cabinet Division.
Prominent figures benefiting from Toshakhana gifts include President Dr Arif Alvi, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, former prime ministers Imran Khan, Nawaz Sharif, Shaukat Aziz, Yousuf Raza Gilani, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, and Zafarullah Khan Jamali, along with former presidents Asif Ali Zardari and Pervez Musharraf, as well as other top politicians.
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