Aleema Khan faces barrage of questions

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan’s sister Aleema Khan faced a barrage of questions when she arrived at the Supreme Court for hearing in foreign assets case.

The reporters asked her a number of questions relating to her properties in Dubai and US reportedly not declared with Pakistani tax authorities.

Answering them, the premier's sister insisted that she had bought them through her export business and assets transferred from her father.

“I am a businesswoman for the last 20 years and nothing was hidden from the concerned authorities. I have declared everything in my wealth statement, she responded when questioned whether she is benamidar of PM Imran Khan.

Aleema Khan has been accused of owning undeclared properties in foreign destinations worth millions of rupees.

The opposition parties have lambasted the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf for showing leniency towards Imran’s sister while taking a strict action against the leaders of Pakistan Peoples’ Party and Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz).

A report in this newspaper revealed that she also owns a four-storey building containing three flats in New Jersey America.

These flats were never declared to the tax authorities in Pakistan by Aleema Khan till the financial year ending June 30, 2017, copies of her tax returns show. However, she declared it in the tax year ending June 30, 2018 after she failed to sell the USA flat. She, however, didn’t declare the sold-out properties and is now facing a case in Supreme Court for not declaring her UAE flat.

It is worth mentioning here that the official documents of offshore company ‘Niazi Services Limited’, which owned a London flat, also showed Aleema Khan as only director of the company.

The property is located just 400 metres away from the bank of River Hudson, around four kilometres from Manhattan and three kilometers from The Wall Street, the financial capital of the world.

The title of the property having the address of 154, 6th Street, Hoboken City, New Jersey (NJ 07030), USA shows that Aleema Khan (Aleema Khanum) purchased the property along with her the then partner on August 5, 2004 from Prebola, Keith & Susan, Etals at the value (cost declared in the deed) of $758,000.

According to the deed, Aleema Khan owns 75% of the property while her partner owns 25%. The current market value of the property stands at around US$3 million (more than Rs45 crore).

The record shows the property was purchased through mortgage in 2004 and later on further loans were obtained from the bank by re-mortgaging the same property by Aleema Khan and her son Shahrez. Shahrez used power of attorney of ex-business partner of her mother for this re-mortgage.