PTI demands that gift-giving generals and judges named Fawad be fired asks the LHC to establish a judicial commission to investigate transactions involving gift repositories, and demands an apology from PML-N.
Fawad Chaudhry, a senior leader of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), delivered a video statement on Monday asking for information about foreign gifts that judges and military generals had kept.
The demand comes a day after the federal government, acting under Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s orders, uploaded a 466-page record of Toshakhana (gift depository) transactions from 2002 to 2023 to its official website.
It should be noted that the federal government had previously submitted information about Toshakhana gifts to the Lahore High Court (LHC) in February after considerable delays, but only after classifying the information as “classified” and notifying the court that the decision to unseal the documents was up to the court.
The fact that only information about public office holders from 2002 was disclosed in the record made public last night, but the high court requested records from 1947 to the present, is still notable.
Fawad applauded the LHC judge for his intervention but welcomed the publication of the record nonetheless.
The PTI leader claimed that the record was “yet another proof” of the corruption of the PTI’s political adversaries. “The Toshakhana list is before us, and we can see how the Nawaz Sharif family and the Zardari family plundered the Toshakhana,” he stated.
He said, “Turns out they were themselves the guilty party. They had been assaulting Imran Khan and [his wife] Bushra Bibi with commercials worth billions.
If any of these individuals followed the law in order to obtain the gifts, it was Imran Khan, according to Fawad. Also, he asserted that the PTI leader and his wife had taken the fewest gifts from the repository.
He continued, “The ultimate misuse of the Toshakhana was how Nawaz Sharif and Zardari pulled out cars from there.” He claimed that this constituted a “blatant breach” of the law because the sum paid for the expensive cars was “pennies” in comparison to their original value.
The list begins in 2002, but we should at least see the list going back to 1988, he stated, adding “I also believe that this list is still incomplete.”
He demanded an end to “the notion of the sacred cow” and said that gifts received by judges and generals should also be considered.
Additionally, he asked the LHC to set up an impartial commission to look into the Toshakhana record and confirm that the presents were acquired and retained lawfully.
Fawad also requested an apology from his political foes, particularly the PML-N, for “propaganda” they had propagated about the PTI leader and his wife.
