A National Accountability Bureau (NAB) team on Sunday visited Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan at Adiala Jail, interrogating him in the Al-Qadir Trust case.
Reportedly, the questioning spanned two hours and was part of a series of visits to the jail by the anti-graft watchdog as it ramps up the probe into the £140 million scandal. While details of the questioning have not been made public, NAB’s previous rounds of interrogation have circulated around Khan’s role in the funds that were transferred to the Supreme Court’s account against a penalty imposed on Bahria Town owner Malik Riaz.
According to the NAB case, Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi, are accused of obtaining billions of rupees and hundreds of kanals of land from Bahria Town to construct the Al-Qadir University in exchange for receiving and transferring the £140 million recovered by the U.K.’s National Crime Agency (NCA) from Malik Riaz’s family. Khan is further accused of misleading his cabinet by concealing the facts related to the settlement agreement, which had called for the recovered funds to be deposited in the national exchequer rather than adjusting it against the Rs. 450 billion liabilities of Bahria Town Karachi.
“In return to this favor illegally and dishonestly, Bahria Town Ltd. gave material and monetary benefits in shape of land measuring 458 kanals, Rs. 285 million, building and other kinds disguised under the garb of donations to Al Qadir University Trust in which you are one of the trustees and signed acknowledgment of donations with Bahria Town,” read a previous NAB notice sent to Bushra Bibi.
Last week, the Supreme Court ordered the transfer of Rs. 35 billion from the SC registrar’s account for Bahria Town’s settlement to the federal government. It also ordered the remainder amount in the account to be transferred to the Sindh government. The order, per some legal experts, has emboldened NAB, as it has observed that the funds remitted for the settlement belong to the state and should have been deposited with the national exchequer.