Cabinet asked to add Imran Khan, Bushra Bibi on no-fly list

ISLAMABAD: The federal cabinet’s sub-committee has recommended placing 41 names — including Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan, his wife Bushra Bibi, Zulfi Bukhari, and Shahzad Akbar — on the Exit Control List (ECL), reported Geo News on Wednesday.

The development comes as the sub-committee meeting attended by Caretaker Interior Minister Sarfaraz Bugti, Minister for Communications Shahid Ashraf Tarar, and other officials held in Islamabad earlier today.

During the meeting, the sub-committee recommended the names of 41 people be included in the ECL on the recommendation of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and other agencies.

Among those 29 people, including the PTI chief, were recommended to be included in the ECL due to the £190 million settlement case.

As per Geo News, apart from these, 13 different types of cases were also recommended to be removed from the ECL. On the instructions of the judiciary, the names of seven people have been recommended to be removed from the ECL.

The recommendations will now be sent to the caretaker federal cabinet for final approval.

The £190 million settlement case

The PTI chairman is facing charges of corruption of billions of rupees in a case involving a property tycoon.

Imran — along with his wife Bushra Bibi and other PTI leaders — is facing a NAB inquiry related to a settlement between the PTI government and the property tycoon, which reportedly caused a loss of £190 million to the national exchequer.

As per the charges, Imran and other accused allegedly adjusted Rs50 billion — £190 million at the time — sent by Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA) to the Pakistani government as part of the agreement with the property tycoon.

They are also accused of getting undue benefit in the form of over 458 kanals of land at Mouza Bakrala, Sohawa, to establish Al Qadir University.

During the PTI government, the NCA seized assets worth 190 million pounds from a property tycoon in Britain.

The agency said the assets would be passed to the government of Pakistan and the settlement with the Pakistani property tycoon was “a civil matter, and does not represent a finding of guilt”.

Subsequently, then-prime minister Imran got approval for the settlement with the UK crime agency from his cabinet on December 3, 2019, without disclosing the details of the confidential agreement.

It was decided that the money would be submitted to the Supreme Court on behalf of the tycoon.

Subsequently, the Al-Qadir Trust was established in Islamabad a few weeks after the PTI-led government approved the agreement with the property tycoon.

Bukhari, Babar Awan, Bushra Bibi, and her close friend Farah Khan were appointed as members of the trust.

Two to three months after the cabinet’s approval, the property tycoon transferred 458 canals of land to Bukhari, a close aide of the PTI chief, which he later transferred to the trust.

Later, Bukhari and Awan opted out as the trustees. That trust is now registered in the name of Imran, Bushra Bibi, and Farah.

NAB officials were earlier probing the alleged misuse of powers in the process of recovery of “dirty money” received from the UK crime agency.

Following the emergence of "irrefutable evidence" in the case, the inquiry was converted into an investigation.

According to the NAB officials, Imran and his wife obtained land worth billions of rupees from the property tycoon, to build an educational institute, in return for striking a deal to give legal cover to the property tycoon’s black money received from the UK crime agency.