Islamabad: The wife of former Prime Minister Imran Khan, Bushra Bibi, and her close friend Farhat Shehzadi have been summoned by Pakistan’s anti-corruption watchdog, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), on November 13 for questioning in a case related to the Al-Qadir Trust, a charity organization allegedly used for money laundering.
The Al-Qadir Trust case is one of the two major corruption cases against Imran Khan, the leader of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, who was ousted from power in April 2022 following a no-confidence vote in Parliament. The other case is the Toshakhana case, in which Khan is accused of receiving luxury vehicles and gifts from foreign dignitaries in exchange for favors.
According to NAB sources, Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi are suspected of obtaining billions of rupees and hundreds of kanals of land from a real estate firm, Al-Azizia Steel Mills, owned by the Sharif family, the political rivals of Khan. The money and land were allegedly laundered through the Al-Qadir Trust, which was set up by Bushra Bibi’s friend Farhat Shehzadi. The trust claimed to be a charitable organization that provided education, health, and welfare services to the poor and needy.
However, NAB investigators found that the trust was actually a front for siphoning off money from Pakistan to offshore accounts in Britain and the Middle East. The British authorities detected the illegal transactions and seized 50 billion Pakistani rupees (about $300 million) from the trust’s accounts and returned them to Pakistan during the previous PTI government.
NAB sources said that they have new evidence against Bushra Bibi, who comes from a very conservative and religious family, and that she may be charged as an accomplice in the money laundering case. They said that Bushra Bibi and her relatives received a large share of the laundered money and that she hid 14 billion rupees (about $84 million) in more than 100 bank accounts in Pakistan and abroad.
Imran Khan is currently in jail, serving a three-year sentence for corruption and other charges, including leaking secret government information, promoting violence and terrorism, and misusing his authority. He was arrested in early August 2023, after a court convicted him and ordered his immediate imprisonment. He was granted a brief visit to his wife Bushra Bibi in a high-security prison in August, where he reportedly expressed his regret and asked for her forgiveness.
The political situation in Pakistan has been unstable and chaotic since Imran Khan’s removal from office, which triggered mass protests and violence by his supporters. His successor and arch-rival, former Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, resigned on August 14, 2023, amid allegations of corruption and incompetence. He was replaced by caretaker Prime Minister Anwar-ul-Haq Kakar, who is expected to hold elections in early 2024.
