Imran declares assets, warns of civil disobedience

Declaring his assets on Sunday, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan urged the leadership of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) to make their complete assets public as well, otherwise his party would launch a civil disobedience movement. “We shall not ignore the issue of the assets of political leaders. They have kept the details of their assets hidden and now the responsibility lies with them to declare all details of their assets voluntarily, otherwise the PTI will take the issue to the people, hold protests and launch a civil disobedience movement and no one should blame us then that we are using undemocratic means or destabilising democracy in the country,” Khan said at a press conference.
Without naming the leadership of the PPP and the PML-N, Imran said the issue of assets was a matter of national importance as increase in assets was directly related to corruption by the parties which had been or were in power at present in the country. Slamming the government for not implementing the decisions of the Supreme Court, the PTI chief said the PPP-led government was adopting undemocratic tactics and avoiding implementation of the decisions of the apex court. He also said his party would render sacrifices to uphold the dignity of the Supreme Court and save democracy in the country. Khan said all his assets were in his name and he did not have any abroad, apart from around Rs 1 million. He also added that he did declare that sum owing to litigation over the money.
Giving details of the assets, he said that he had purchased Banigala land in 2002 for Rs 43.5 million (Rs 145,000 per kanal) in the name of Jemima Khan, his ex-wife, as she had paid the money at the time of purchase, which he returned to her after selling his flat in the UK for £715,000. He said the Banigala land was gifted back to him by his ex-wife upon divorce.
He also said he had paid taxes for all his property and funds for the purchase of land had been transferred via banking channels and shown in his tax returns to the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR). He said further that he had inherited 530 kanals of agricultural land in Mian Channu from his grandfather, two plots had been gifted to him by the Punjab chief minister for winning the World Cup in 1992 and being named Man of the Series in 1987, and both plots were later donated to Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital.
He also said all his income came from overseas sources such as cricket commentary, corporate lectures and article writings and all his accounts were in Pakistan. He also said that recent bank transactions were tax free as there was no tax on foreign remittances in Pakistan under the Economic Reforms Act introduced by Nawaz Sharif in 1992. Imran said further that all details of his assets were true and he would leave politics if any discrepancy or irregularity was found in the details. He added that all members of his party’s central executive committee would also declare their assets shortly.
Later, answering questions of the media, Imran said Pakistan’s former ambassador to the US Husain Haqqani’s statement about his meeting with the British army chief should also be probed. He added that Pakistani-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz’s new disclosure that President Asif Ali Zardari and Haqqani knew of the Stealth Operation was an allegation of a serious nature.
Answering a question about funding to the PTI from the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Khan said it was mere propaganda and said he wanted the Supreme Court to reopen the Asghar Khan case as it would make clear who had received funds from the ISI.
The PTI chief also said no member of the Board of Governors of the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital had received any funds from the Shaukat Khanum Trust.
QURESHI VICE PRESIDENT: Later, he announced that he had appointed former foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi the vice chairman of the PTI.
Meanwhile, Qureshi said the Bonn Conference had lost its significance after Pakistan’s refusal to attend it. He said Pakistan should have downgraded its participation and sent its ambassador to Germany to attend the moot.