‘Reimagining Toshakhana gifts’: Suleman Shehbaz taunts Khaqan Abbasi

Days after the government made public the details of foreign gifts retained by public office holders, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's son Sulemen Shehbaz on Tuesday took a dig at Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz's (PML-N) senior leader Shahid Khaqan Abbasi for retaining Toshakhana gifts worth millions

As per the Toshakhana record shared by the government, Abbasi — while being prime minister for less than a year — made a fortune by keeping Toshakhana gifts valued over Rs233 million.

Taking to Twitter, the PM's son referred to an initiative named "Reimagining Pakistan" by Abbasi and Miftah. "Reimagining Tosha Khana gifts," he wrote.

Responding to Suleman's tweet on Geo News' programme "Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada Kay Saath", Abbasi said that he didn’t mind it and that he is with the party, not any individual (Suleman).

Explaining the legal requirement for retaining a gift, Abbasi said he paid more tax on the gifts retained from Toshakhana than the price he paid. He said the government can probe if any illegality is suspected in retaining the gifts.

The record further shows that other members of the current cabinet including Ishaq Dar, Khawaja Muhammad Asif, Ahsan Iqbal, Syed Naveed Qamar, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf and Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao have also retained expensive gifts from paying minimal or no costs at all.

The record reflects that Abbasi (prime minister in 2017) kept over 50 gifts for himself, his spouse, and three sons in less than a year which had a value of over Rs233 million in total.

The expensive gifts were retained paying 20 or even less per cent of their assessed value while gifts which were in thousands were mostly taken for free. Abbasi, when he became prime minister in 2017, got more than six special edition watch sets which had a value close to Rs90 million.

Apart from these, the spouse of the then prime minister kept a Rs100 million valued jewellery set consisting of one necklace, a pair of ear tops, a bracelet, and a ring.

Similarly, his sons kept luxury watch sets of Hublot, Harry Winston and Rolex having value of millions of rupees. Mobile phones were also taken by his sons. These gifts were retained by the then-prime minister by paying 20% of their assessed value.

It is important to mention here that only two of these gifts were given to Abbasi while he was minister for petroleum and natural resources from 2013 to 2017.