Farah Gogi and family’s foreign companies revealed

ISLAMABAD: At a time when Imran Khan was asking overseas Pakistanis to invest in Pakistan, the former first lady’s close friend Farhat Shahzadi and her family were busy expanding their businesses abroad and registering/incorporating companies in the United Kingdom.

Farhat’s family registered/acquired four companies whose nature of business mentioned in the documents is SIC or dealing in real estate business in the UK during Imran’s premiership. Three of them were registered or acquired by Farhat’s sister and one by Farhat and her husband from 2019 to 2021. In total, Farah’s sister Musarat Khan owns or has owned around half a dozen companies in the UK.

Farhat Shahzadi — commonly known as Farah Khan/Farah Gogi and her husband Ahsan Iqbal Jamil are facing serious corruption allegations and currently living abroad. But for former prime minister Imran Khan, these allegations are merely political victimisation of the present government. Imran publicly defended Farah Khan in a press conference. The FIA has registered a case under the Anti-Money Laundering Act against her and the government is planning to bring them back to Pakistan through Interpol.

Farah Khan’s wealth grew exponentially during prime minister Imran Khan’s regime. Her declared wealth increased by more than four times from 2018 onwards. Farah Khan, her husband Ahsan Iqbal Jamil along with three other partners — one of the top medical doctors in the country — acquired a company Goldstar Euro Limited on May 14, 2020, in the United Kingdom.

Well-placed sources stated that Farah and her husband acquired the company for money laundering purposes in order to route the money. However, Farah Khan’s husband Ahsan Iqbal Jamil refuted these allegations and said it was mere allegations.

Moreover, Farah Khan’s sister Musarat Khan registered a company Black Apple Investments Limited on November 9, 2021. The documents available with The News show that the company deals in buying and selling real estate and management of real estate on a fee or contract basis.

Another company registered by Farah’s sister was Al Muez Limited on August 19, 2019. The company was established to deal in the real estate business.

The same name Al-Muez is being used by Farah Khan as well. Al Muez is the brand name of Farah Khan as she owns different companies with this name in Pakistan, including Al Muez Dairy. The FIA has also mentioned in its FIR that Farhat Shahzadi acquired an industrial plot of 10.3 acres for the Al Muez Dairy in the Faisalabad Industrial Zone at a subsidised rate.

Musarat Khan acquired another company DMK Enterprises Limited on July 4, 2019. The company was dissolved in March 2021. Apart from this, Musarat Khan owned some other companies, including Dayyan Enterprises Limited, Maximum M K Tradings Ltd and DKhans Constructions Limited, etc.

The documents available with The News reveal that there is an inflow of money in the form of remittances in Farah Khan, Ahsan Iqbal Jamil and Musarat Khan’s accounts. But no document shows the outflow. Farah Khan received Rs4,190,400 foreign remittances whereas her sister received Rs84 million foreign remittances in two years.

It is important to note here that Farah Khan’s declared assets before Imran Khan came into power were reported to be worth Rs231,635,297 (Rs231 million) in 2017. However, within the first three years of Imran Khan’s government Farah’s declared assets reached Rs971 million in 2021. Farah and her husband Ahsan Iqbal Jameel also availed themselves of the whitening of black money (Tax Amnesty Scheme 2019) in Imran Khan’s government. Both Farah and her husband had declared Rs328.7 million and Rs20 million respectively under the Tax Amnesty Scheme 2019.

When contacted, Ahsan Iqbal Jamil said, “The FIA’s FIR is completely political victimisation. Interior minister, Maryam Nawaz Sharif, PM’s Adviser Ata Tarar along with other government representatives have publicly made such threats against Farhat Shahzadi. Time and again they mentioned the word Red Warrants in those threats.”

To a question about the acquisition of the company in the UK, Ahsan Jamil said, “We were trying to build a hospital in Islamabad. But it did not proceed further than the planning. I was supposed to offer land to that hospital. It’s been a dead issue for a long. There were no properties attached to EuroStar; it was merely a corporation with assets in its name. Nor have we initiated any business with that company so far. We tried to expand the business but never moved forward on it,” he said.

When asked when the hospital was being built in Pakistan what the reason was for registering the company in the UK, Ahsan Iqbal Jamil commented, “I think many Drs. from abroad suggested that they will only participate in such companies. Many names came under consideration. It all remained in the planning stages. No financial transactions took place. I guaranteed the group that I would contribute to the land. I don’t have a single company working abroad. I told you it was a planning stage. The matter did not come to the point of land,” he said.

Responding to a question about the proposed location of the hospital, he said, “We hadn’t finalised the exact location. Only if it had come to that stage. We are taxpayers and all properties and funds that came into question are declared and tax paid. There’s no evidence of corruption of any sort. Why hurt everyone who even shook hands with us,” commented Ahsan Iqbal Jamil.

He asked this correspondent to include his version in detail. “Mr Durrani, I offered my honest answers to most of your questions. I expect honest relay of them,” he said.

The News also sent a detailed questionnaire to Musarat Khan but she did not reply till the filing of the story.