£190m case: Court defers reserved verdict till final ruling

ISLAMABAD: An accountability court Thursday deferred announcing its reserved verdict on former first lady Bushra Bibi’s acquittal plea till its final ruling in the £190 million settlement case. The case pertains to billions of rupees loss to the national exchequer caused by the PTI founder Imran Khan and his spouse Bushra Bibi. The case also involves a property tycoon. The court resumed the hearing at the Adiala jail but decided to defer the decision till the final verdict on the matter. Imran and Bushra were represented by their lawyers Zaheer Abbas Chaudhry and Usman Riaz Gul.

NAB Prosecutor General Sardar Mazhar Abbasi and Amjad Parvez along with their team were also present. The defence lawyers cross-examined the NAB investigation officer Mian Umar Nadeem. The cross-examination of the official will be resumed at the next hearing. The hearing of the case was adjourned till September 7 (Saturday).

Talking informally to journalists, Imran said he was being questioned for standing up against the powerful and made it clear that he would rather die in a prison cell than bow down to oppressors of time. He said Pakistan’s cricket had suffered a disaster but Mohsin Naqvi’s name didn’t appear in any newspaper. “The world is mocking us after Bangladesh beat us soundly. Decisions are being made by those who want to become PCB chairman, and ones having billions of dollars stashed abroad.”

He said the country was heading towards a revolution adding that those in power should have awakened after the silent revolution of February 8. “The decision-makers lack sense, and we have not seen more foolish decisions than these. To teach me a lesson, they have kept Bushra Bibi in jail for seven months. They question my courage to stand up against the powerful. I want to make it clear that I will die in jail but will never accept the slavery of today’s oppressors,” he said.

“The Balochistan crisis is escalating. If the PTI had not been in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the crisis there would have been as severe as in Balochistan,” added Imran. He said the solution did not lie in sticks and guns but in allowing people’s elected representatives to step forward.

Imran said placing puppets in Balochistan had worsened the situation and things were slipping out of hand. Akhtar Mengal is absolutely right; it is becoming dangerous, he added. “The solution lies in holding the local bodies elections there. The funds meant for the people do not reach them and there is poverty.” He said the money allocated for Balochistan in the NFC Award did not reach the grassroots adding that nationwide real local bodies elections were the need of the hour.

Imran said the country needed dialogue without further delay. “They used to say that TTP exists because of us. Who is responsible for BLA in Balochistan now? To end terrorism, there are three dimensions: intelligence, dialogue and then operations. “You have been conducting operations since 2004 to end terrorism; how much difference has it made? You have engaged intelligence agencies in dismantling the major political party PTI instead of focusing on countering terrorism.

“This time too, there is least investment in the history of the country and the rulers are borrowing more, which is going to bring a new storm of inflation. The top decision-makers have billions of dollars overseas. I am telling you that the country is heading towards a revolution.” Continuing, he said, “They should have woken up to the silent revolution of February 8. You are starting to sink the raft of Supreme Court, so that the election fraud would not come to light. Pakistanis have made historic investments in Dubai during the last two and a half years. The decision makers have no sense, intelligence or morals. Dr. Yasmeen Rashid is a 75-year-old woman and cancer survivor who is incarcerated. Now they are threatening the judges. The judge of Sargodha was picked up and taken away. I have never seen such cruelty before.”

Earlier, journalists lodged a protest with Imran saying they had been reporting fairly on him for a year, but his sister Aleema Khan accused reporters from three private TV channels of having links with the intelligence agencies. They demanded a policy statement on whether Imran Khan trusted them. Imran Khan assured journalists that he would question Aleema Khan about her statement and confirmed his trust in the three reporters, appreciating their work as a form of jihad.