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Imran’s lawyer admits record of $100,000 relating to Bani Gala not found

September 12, 2017

ISLAMABAD, Sept 12 (inp): PTI chief Imran Khan’s lawyer Naeem Bokhari admitted in court on Tuesday that a record of $100,000 pertaining to the cricketer-turned-politician’s Bani Gala mansion was not found. Proceedings of the Imran Khan disqualification case were conducted at the apex court earlier during the day by a three-member bench headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar. Justice Nisar pointed out that there was no documentary evidence that Imran Khan had borrowed money from Jemima and then returned it to her later for the purchase of Bani Gala mansion. “Where are the receipts of the transactions that prove that the PTI chief borrowed money from Jemima and returned it to her later?” he asked. The court further stated that Imran was supposed to disclose the loan in the nomination papers that he had filed before the general elections of 2002, since the loan was a liability. “Imran Khan will have to prove that he borrowed the amount from Jemima,” said the chief justice. Naeem Bokhari, Imran’s counsel, stated in response to a question raised by the court that Jemima had transferred the money to Imran via the couple’s mutual friend Rashid since he was an employee of CitiBank and could convert the money before handing it to Imran. As per Bokhari, $285,000 were transferred to Rashid from Jemima. The court demanded that money trail pertaining to the Bani Gala transaction amounting to $126,000 was missing. In response, Bolkhari replied that records of transactions amounting to $16,000 and $5,000 conducted between Jemima and Rashid were available. However, he conceded that a transaction amounting to $100,000 was missing. The chief justice stated that documents submitted in court by Imran Khan were not acceptable since they were photocopies and not original. Meanwhile, Akram Sheikh, the counsel for Hanif Abbasi, argued that in the documents the name of the person who sent the amount was stated as J. Khan. “J.Khan could also be Jahangir Khan,” he said. “The J. Khan transaction has been proved,” he added. Akram Sheikh stated that CitiBank had closed down its operations in Pakistan in 2006 hence the authenticity of the documents was questionable. “Habib Bank had taken control of CitiBank’s affairs. The records can be obtained from Habib Bank as well,” he added. Hearing of the case was adjourned till September 26. INP/AJ