ISLAMABAD, April 20: While hearing a Cabinet Division plea on Wednesday seeking court directives to bar disclosure about the details of Toshakhana gifts that former Prime Minister Imran Khan received during his government’s tenure, the Islamabad High Court granted two weeks to the federal government for response in the matter.
A single-member bench of Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb passed the order during adjudication of two pleas in the matter including a citizen and another from the Cabinet Division. Before it’s ouster, for almost a year the PTI government refused to come clean on the Toshakhana gifts, when a citizen sought the details and the Pakistan Information Commission (PIC) ordered the government to disclose the required information. However, the Cabinet Division had challenged the PIC order, effectively blocking it.
During the proceedings on Wednesday, Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb ordered implementation of the Pakistan Information Commission (PIC) order. Justice Hassan told the deputy attorney general that there was no point in keeping a gift by paying some money. The government must make a policy that whatever gift is received should be deposited with the treasury, the justice said.
Gifts are not only received within Pakistan but also given to people abroad and all the gifts from foreign countries should be on display, the judge remarked. If any gift was taken home, it must be returned to the PM Office , the judge said. The court issued directives to the attorney general saying to “take a look” at the gifts received in the last 20 years.
Responding to the deputy attorney’s plea for more time to seek instructions from the government, Justice Aurangzeb said he can take that time but, in the meantime, the PIC order should be implemented.
“There is no stay on the Pakistan Information Commission’s order. The Cabinet Division is bound to provide information,” the judge said. Later the case was adjourned for two weeks. On April 15, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif made allegations that Imran Khan received a necklace, a ring, and a watch from the Toshakhana at a nominal price and sold the items in Dubai for tens of millions of rupees.
Earlier, some reports claimed that Khan’s decision to sell the precious articles his government received from Arab rulers on the Dubai market had irked the foreign dignitaries who had gifted the items to Pakistan. Imran Khan reportedly told a group of journalists this week these were his gifts and he can do anything with them – a statement that has been reworded as “my gift, my choice” by many. -NNI
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