Imran Khan, the chairman of PTI, acknowledged investing money given to the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Trust (SKMT) in a private housing project. However, he made it clear that the money was later returned to the trust.
The information was revealed during the defamation trial in which Mr. Khan, who sued PML-N leader Khawaja Asif, currently the defense minister, for Rs 10 billion, was the defendant.
In attendance were attorneys from both parties as Additional District and Sessions Judge Umeed Ali Baloch presided over the proceedings. Mr. Khan participated via video link from his home in Lahore’s Zaman Park.
In response to questions from the opposing party, Mr. Khan revealed that the SKMT board of directors had told him about the private housing society’s investment.
Barrister Haider Rasool, the attorney for Mr. Asif, questioned Mr. Khan about his investment in a building project. The PTI chairman acknowledged it but couldn’t recall the project’s name.
Mr. Khan claimed that he also couldn’t recall whether the board had given him written notice that the $3 million had been returned and the dispute was resolved.
The dollar rate was Rs. 60 when the investment was made, and it doubled to Rs. 120 when the investment matured, according to Barrister Rasool, who claimed that the dispute had not been resolved.
Cross-examination would not have taken much time, Mr. Khan joked, if the attorney had not tried to skew the proceedings and get right to the point after the counsel again asked the court to adjourn proceedings and insisted that he would finish it in a few hours at the next hearing.
The former premier claimed that the issue could be resolved quickly if the case was handled honestly. Next, the hearing was postponed by the court.
Mr. Khan sued Mr. Asif for defamation in the amount of Rs. 10 billion in 2012 after making claims of theft and money laundering involving the SKMT funds.
In his lawsuit, Mr. Khan cited Mr. Asif’s press conference from August 1, 2012, in which the PML-N leader claimed the PTI leader had lost a significant sum of money donated to the SKMT in “real estate gambling.”. He claimed that the money came to the trust as zakat, fitrana, and other types of donations.
Mr. Khan testified in court in January 2022 that from 1991 to 2009, he was SKMT’s largest individual donor and that the trust profitably recovered all of the investments above.
According to Mr. Khan, “fabricated and baseless allegations” were made to erode the public’s trust.
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