ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Sunday released a white paper against the leadership of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and also forcefully defended his wife’s friend, Farah Khan, calling her totally innocent.

He said that lodging a first information report (FIR) against him over the Masjid-i-Nabwi incident was unjustified and also criticised Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja for his ‘incompetence’.

Speaking at a press conference at the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa House in Islamabad, Mr Khan said the white paper was being released as it was feared that the PML-N and PPP would close their corruption cases.

“All cases were registered between 2008 and 2018, which means that they were filed by both the parties against each other during their terms in government. Only one case was registered by the Federal Investigation Agency during PTI’s tenure,” he said.

Mr Khan said former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his daughter, Maryam Nawaz, were on bail in the Panama Papers case while both his (Nawaz) sons had fled the country.

“When they were asked to give a reply to the allegations against them, they claimed that they were not citizens of Pakistan, the PTI chairman said, adding that there had been no example before where the sons of a three-time prime minister were claiming not to be citizens of a country that had been ruled by their father.

“Money was sent abroad by using the names of their servants,” he said, adding that after getting the government, they had changed the investigating officers while the special prosecutor was stopped from visiting the court to get results of their choice.

“This is what happened when Gen Pervez Musharraf gave an NRO to Asif Ali Zardari,” he said.

Sharing detail of the cases, Mr Khan said Rs220 million were spent from the national exchequer to build a drain from a sugar mill that belonged to the Sharif family.

Mr Khan claimed that when Shehbaz Sharif was the Punjab chief minister, he used a plane a number of times to travel abroad and within the country on which tens of millions of rupees were spent.

“NRO-II has been given to both parties and soon records will disappear just like the one against Asif Zardari, which was collected from Switzerland and destroyed,” he said.

Defending Farah Khan, the former prime minister said she was being pressurised because she was a close friend of his wife, Bushra Bibi.

He said the same tactic was being employed as in the case of Jemima Khan when she was accused of smuggling antique tiles just because she was his wife.

“Though it was proved within 48 hours that the tiles were not antique, the case was not heard for one year. Now they cannot find anything against Bushra Bibi so they have decided to use the name of her close friend,” he added.

Mr Khan claimed Farah Khan was innocent and the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) did not have the mandate to lodge a case of assets beyond means against her as she never held a public office.

“It is being said that her (Farah’s) property had increased manifold; she is involved in property business and during the last three years, its value has risen tremendously. She is absolutely innocent,” he said.

NAB had initiated a case a few days ago against Farah Khan for carrying out transactions of over Rs800 million through her account.

Mr Khan was accompanied by PTI leaders Fawad Chaudhry, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Babar Awan and Barrister Mohammad Ali Saif. Some selected journalists were invited to the news conference while the rest of the media was requested to cover the event through social media.

Replying to questions, Mr Khan said he was not aware of the incident at Masjid-i-Nabwi where slogans were chanted against Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his cabinet members as he and other party leaders were busy in Shab-i-Dua on 27th of Ramazan.

Although he termed the incident ‘foolish’, he said the PML-N and PPP leadership would be meted out the same treatment across the globe as Pakistanis, especially overseas Pakistanis, were not happy with them.

He said the government should be ashamed of lodging an FIR against him and condemned the arrest of Sheikh Rashid Shafique, the nephew of former interior minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed.

“During my tenure I never lodged such cases against politicians and mediapersons,” he added.

Mr Khan lashed out at the CEC and claimed that the Supreme Court might have given a different verdict if the Election Commission of Pakistan had not said that general elections could not be held in the next six months.

“The court should have dismissed him at once as the CEC had failed to fulfill his prime responsibility of conducting elections in 90 days,” he added.

Responding to another question, the former prime minister said the march towards Islamabad would be the biggest ever in the history of the country as a large number of families would participate along with the PTI workers.

“It will be a peaceful march and we will make history,” he added.

Published in Dawn, May 2nd, 2022