Farah Khan ‘absolutely innocent’, case politically motivated: Imran

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan said on Sunday that the corruption case against his wife Bushra Bibi's close aide Farhat Shehzadi aka Farah Khan was “totally wrong.”

Addressing a press conference, he declared her "absolutely innocent" and termed the NAB case against her politically motivated. He explained that she had been in real estate business for the last 20 years and the case was of resources beyond means, which did not apply on her, as she was neither an MNA nor a public office-holder. He continued that her husband was an office-bearer of a union council during 1997-99 but added their wedding took place many years later.

It was also said, he noted, that she had great connections with Bushra Begum. "Now, I am the real target, as when they found nothing against me, they tried to target her and it is straightaway political victimisation, as was done to Jemima for being my wife, when a case of tiles smuggling was filed against her. Despite the fact, she got forensic test but the case was run for a year, as the judges would not hold hearings,” he recalled.

He pointed out the fortunes of Farah Khan increased significantly because of boom in real estate business during the last three years and this could be confirmed from other real estate businessmen. He insisted that she must be given full opportunity to defend herself in the case and full hearings should be conducted.

Coming to the conspiracy letter, he said that the institutions, even in a banana republic, would have taken the issue of foreign conspiracy of a regime change seriously.

Imran said that the institutions in the banana republic would have seen, as to how an elected prime minister was removed through a foreign conspiracy and the local people became part of it and then the most corrupt were imposed on the people.

He said they had appealed to the courts that it was their duty and it was for their credibility to expose this conspiracy and decide whether or not there is democracy in the country, and if there is democracy, then peaceful protest is their right.

Replying to a question, Imran said during their 26 years struggle, they had neither opted for confrontation nor provoked people to spread anarchy. “Our protest will be very peaceful and an unprecedented number of people would gather here. And, if they try to stop this protest and put people in jail, it is a challenge for the courts to tell us, whether or not there is democracy in the country. During the PTI rule, it was reminded to us every day that there is democracy in the country, even if we tried to take action on a fake news,” he noted. He claimed that full pressure was being exerted on the media.

He said if Rana Sanaullah tried to arrest the participants of the protest, this will lead the country towards a confrontation. “I have a message for him that he should not think the people will remain silent if he arrests them. The people will rather come out and in such a situation, how they will run their government,” he warned.

Referring to the Sharifs, Imran alleged that political victimisation is in their DNA and they have been resorting to it for the last 30 years and claimed how cricketer Sarfraz Nawaz was beaten with batons and Najam Sethi was locked and beaten. “This the style of the Sharif mafia and their approach and Shehbaz Sharif got killed maximum number of people in fake police encounters,” he charged.

Imran continued by saying that now it was also a test for the courts, as throughout their life, the Sharifs subjected rivals to victimisation and said the courts were more independent today than ever before. However, he claimed that during their rule, there was not a single case of victimisation and not one fake FIR was registered against rivals in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Replying to another question about the fate of elections, he said that to his understanding, the chief election commissioner had influenced the courts, when they were recently in the process of deciding (a case) that he could not hold elections in 90 days and these were possible in 6-7 months. “The courts should have then and there called for his dismissal and installed someone else in his place,” he asserted.

About the case against him and some other party leaders, he said what could be said about the stupid case they had filed that an incident happened in Madina and next day, they ran a campaign as if all that was done by us. “I challenge them, wherever they go to public, they will face the same situation. People in the US have come out against them. People know them from their faces. To accuse us of that incident is absurd as none can even think of that. They are facing public reaction for what they have done,” he claimed.

Imran regretted how, upon arrival at the airport, the nephew of Shiekh Rashid Ahmad was arrested and jailed and said what could be more shameful than this act. He added they were this kind of people.

The PTI chairman said both the PPP and PMLN remained in power twice and from 2008-2018, they added to public debt from Rs6,000 billion to Rs30,000 billion and rendered the country bankrupt with the historic current account deficit of $20 billion. He continued both parties put pressure on his government to end the cases against them. He added now they will give NRO-II to themselves.

He also said both had filed several cases against each other while during the PTI government, only one case was filed in FIA on Rs16 billion corruption. He alleged the Zardari system had made the people of Sindh their slaves and unleashed massive cruelty on them.