Former Prime Minister Imran Khan was found guilty in the Al Qadir Trust case, with an accountability court sentencing him to 14 years in prison at the end of a nearly two-year trial. The ruling also convicted the wife of the former Prime Minister, Bushra Bibi, and sentenced her to seven years in prison.
The Qadir Fund case was the biggest and most significant legal challenge faced by the former prime minister since he was ousted from office in 2022. It was a sprawling investigation that implicated among others Bahria Town founder Malik Riaz, the paramount chief. Court Dam Fund, and members of the former Khan government. In the past two years since it emerged as a high-profile legal threat, the case has become the reason not only for Imran Khan’s initial arrest in May 2023, which then led to the events of May 9, but has also brought the once powerful city of Bahria into the world. Edge of default.
But what exactly are the details of the Al-Qadir Fund case? To put it mildly, this case is perhaps one of the most mysterious and mysterious networks of the Imran Khan administration. It involves accusations of bribery, corruption and kickbacks against the Khan administration, all of which date back to a single deal made in 2019.
Ripples from the UK
In 2019, the UK’s National Crime Agency agreed a £190 million settlement with the family of property tycoon Malik Riaz. The settlement was the largest ever in the history of the National Criminal Court, and since it was out of court, it came with the stipulation that it “does not constitute a conviction.”
To understand this, the NCA is a national law enforcement agency in the United Kingdom that investigates money laundering and illicit financing derived from criminal activity in the United Kingdom and abroad. If the National Crime Agency is investigating a case outside the UK, it returns the stolen money to the affected country. So, if the agency is investigating fraud or money laundering in Pakistan, it will prosecute the matter or reach a settlement in the UK and return the money to the Pakistani government. This is what happened in the case of Malik Riaz. His family had been under an NCA ‘dirty money’ investigation for a while, which came to an end when Malik Riaz paid £190 million to the NCA. This money was then supposed to be sent to the Pakistani government.
But the matter becomes murky with the entry of Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Accountability Shahzad Akbar. On December 5, 2019, Mr. Akbar announced at a press conference in Islamabad that £140 million had been returned to Pakistan.
But there was a problem. These funds were not returned to the federal government. Instead, the money was transferred directly to the Supreme Court account. But why does the money go to the SC?
Well, 2019 was the same year that Bahria Town ran into some serious problems. This was the year the company was fined 460 billion rupees by the Supreme Court of Pakistan. To cut a very long story short, Bahria City acquired land from the Malir Development Authority for the Karachi Expressway project. He declared that that land, which was originally owned by the Sindh government, had been illegally seized. In March 2019, the court accepted Bahria Town Karachi’s offer of Rs460 billion for the lands it occupied in Karachi’s Malir area and restrained the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) from filing references against it.
Bahria Town will have to make payments over seven and a half years. They will have to pay Rs25 billion by August 2019, followed by monthly installments of Rs2.25 billion over the next three years. If they fail to make payments for two consecutive months, the company will be considered in default.
At the same time, the NCA also ordered Bahria Town to pay them ₹190 million. Bahria City paid the NCA, but did not have the cash to pay the Supreme Court. This is where the problem starts. When the National Crime Agency returned the money to Pakistan, it was deposited in the account allocated by the Supreme Court to pay the amount that Bahria Town was supposed to pay in the land transfer case related to Bahria Town Karachi.
The direct transfer of £140 million into SC’s private account raised alarm bells because it essentially meant that money paid by Malik Riaz to NCA that was supposed to go back to Pakistan simply went back to Malik Riaz. This was particularly crucial given that Bahria Town faced the risk of default if it did not pay the fine imposed by the SC.
Government involvement
This leaves us with a very simple question. Why is Imran Khan’s government returning Malik Riaz’s money? The answer, the case against Khan and his wife alleges, is kickbacks. Especially commissions related to Al-Qadir Fund.
The case alleges that Maran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi accepted billions of dollars in cash and hundreds of kanals of land from Bahria Town in exchange for the assistance given to Riaz by the Khan government during his investigation by the National Crime Agency. Home Minister Rana Sanaullah claimed that Bahria Town had entered into an agreement and awarded land measuring 458 kanals with a paper value of Rs 530 million to a trust owned by Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi. The land was donated to the Al-Qadir Fund, and the agreement was signed by the real estate donors and Bushra Bibi.
The then PDM government claimed that Imran’s aide Shehzad Akbar had “settled” the entire issue, while Rs50 billion – which belonged to the national exchequer – was adjusted against Bahria Town’s liability. He said Imran received Rs 5 billion as his share through Akbar before the case concluded. He further said that Bahria Town, after the then PTI government had protected Rs50 billion, allocated 458 canal lands with a paper value of Rs530 million to an investment fund owned by Imran and his wife. He also said that another 240 channels were transferred to “Farah Shehzadi” known as Farah Joji – a close friend of Bushra Bibi.
It is these 458 channels that have now been subject to the audit of the Accountability Office. During the proceedings of the case, a bombshell was revealed when one of the prosecution witnesses claimed during his testimony that real estate tycoon Malik Riaz’s son, Ali Riaz Malik, bought land for Farah Shehzadi in Bani Ghali. Farah Shahzadi is a known associate of former First Lady Bushra Bibi, and is also linked to the case. As per the details given by the witness, a patwari of Mohra Noor (Banigala) constituency, he claimed that nearly 245 kanals of land in Bani Gala were transferred in the name of Farah Shahzadi at a declared cost of Rs 53.28 crore.
The witness came armed with fourteen booms showing the various stages in which the land was transferred. The words of the affidavit, as reported by Dawn newspaper, said, “The land measuring 100 kanals, one marla was transferred in the name of Farhat Shahzadi for Rs 25 crore and 1 lakh 25,000, while the land measuring 100 kanals, five marlas was transferred.” It was transferred in the name of Farhat Shahzadi for Rs 25 crore, 6 lakhs and 25,000 while the land measuring 40 kanals was transferred in the name of Farhat Shahzadi for Rs 3.2 crore.
Meanwhile, the witness also clarified that there does not seem to be direct involvement of former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi, because “as per the record, the names of accused Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi and Bushra Imran were not mentioned there.” as witnesses or in any way.”
Meanwhile, things were getting worse for Bahria Town as well. The accountability court froze the properties of real estate tycoon Malik Riaz and his son. Rumors began to spread that Bahria Town’s real estate value was declining and the organization was laying off workers.
Condemnation
The ruling in this case was issued some time ago, but the conviction was repeatedly delayed. While the conviction was postponed, the government was engaged in negotiations with the PTI. In the wake of his arrest, the PTI has gained a significant amount of popular support, as seen in the recent general elections, and many party leaders claim that the timing of the case is politically motivated.
The Al-Qadir Trust case is not the only case in which Khan has been involved. While the appellate courts granted him relief in a number of these cases, the Al-Qadir Trust case was the former prime minister’s strongest and most threatening legal challenge. . PTI has promised to fight the conviction, but the new prison sentence adds pressure to ongoing negotiations with PTI.