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The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Friday issued another summons to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi, for an in-person appearance to record their statements in connection with the ongoing investigation into the Al-Qadir Trust case.
A two-member NAB team on Friday night handed the summons for Khan and his wife’s appearance in Rawalpindi on May 23 to their legal team at the PTI chief’s Zaman Park residence on Lahore. A day earlier, both Khan and Bushra had failed to appear in-person for the NAB inquiry, opting instead to send a written response. In the written response, Khan said he was not the custodian of the document signed between real estate tycoon Malik Riaz and the U.K.’s National Crime Agency, nor did he have any copy of it. “All the allegations made by you [NAB] in the call-up notice are absolutely false, frivolous and concocted, and based on deliberate misconception of law and facts, and baseless conjectures and surmises,” he claimed.
The Al-Qadir Trust corruption case pertains to a £190 million settlement from the U.K. that then-prime minister Imran Khan and his cabinet is accused of adjusting against a fine owed by Riaz to the Supreme Court, causing losses to the national exchequer. According to various former cabinet members, they were directed to approve the agreement allowing Riaz to avail the funds returned by the U.K.—which were intended for the state of Pakistan—to pay part of his fine without being informed of what they were signing off on. In exchange, it is alleged, Riaz provided undue benefit to Khan and his wife by providing them 458 kanals of land at Mouza Bakrala, Sohawa, to establish the Al-Qadir University.