Imran, wife retain 52 foreign gifts without 'paying a single penny': reports

Islamabad: Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi retained all the 112 valuables worth Rs 142.02 million gifted by different countries, according to media reports. The foreign gifts were retained either for free or purchased at a throwaway price of Rs 38 million, The Express Tribune reported on Friday.

According to the official documents, Imran and his wife retained 52 free gifts worth Rs 800,200 "without paying a single penny". The list of Toshakhana gifts received by ex-PM Imran between August 2018 and December 2021 remained a secret during his tenure, making the situation scandalous to reports of hiding the information from the tax authorities.

Toshakhana is a department under the Cabinet Division which maintains the record of the precious gifts given to rulers, parliamentarians, and officials by heads of other governments, states, and foreign dignitaries as a goodwill gesture.

The then government had adopted the stance that the disclosure of any information related to Toshakhana would jeopardise international ties. Earlier the new Prime Minister of Pakistan Shehbaz Sharif has accused his predecessor Imran Khan of selling Toshakhana gifts worth PKR 140 million in Dubai.

"Imran Khan sold these gifts for Rs140 million in Dubai," PM Shehbaz was reported as telling journalists during an iftar he hosted a day earlier in the federal capital, reported Geo News.

He said that the expensive gifts included diamond jewellery sets, bracelets and wristwatches.

Shehbaz's revelation had come in response to a question regarding a petition seeking the details of the Toshakhana that had been filed in the Islamabad High Court on which then PM Imran Khan had commented that the details cannot be revealed as per the Official Secrets Act, 1923.