How Imran Khan became a prisoner of his own narrative of victimhood

As widely anticipated, despite several postponements, Accountability Court judge Nasir Javed Rana finally came out with a strong judgement on January 17, sentencing former Prime Minister Imran Khan to 14 years of imprisonment and seven years to his wife, Bushra Bibi, in the Al Qadir Trust case, where money laundering proceeds worth 190 million pounds, illegally garnered abroad (UK) by a Pakistani estate dealer, Malik Riaz, were wrongly paid into the account of Pakistan’s Supreme Court instead of to the State’s revenue account in 2019.

This was done to facilitate payment by Malik Riaz of dues amounting to PKR 460 billion fixed by the Supreme Court in March 2019 for the irregular grant of land by the Sindh Government to Riaz’s Malir Development Authority, a part of his Bahria Town housing project in Karachi.

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In lieu of this favour granted, Imran and his wife were given 458 kanals (nearly 60 acres) of land in Jhelum district, ostensibly to set up a university. Apart from this land, several other gifts, including jewels and another plot near Imran’s Bani Gala house near Islamabad, were bestowed by property tycoon Malik Riaz, now a proclaimed offender (PO) in the case reported to be living presently in the UAE. The judgement now orders this land to be confiscated.

The Assets Recovery Unit (ARU) & Malik Riaz’s culpability

When Imran Khan came to power, he made much ado about dealing with the corruption indulged in by the Sharifs and Bhutto-Zardari families with an iron hand. The ARU was set up under Shahzad Akbar, a bureaucrat who worked as PM Imran Khan’s special assistant (now also a PO in this case, staying in exile in London). As brought out so tellingly in investigative journalist Naziha Syed Ali’s April 2021 report in the Dawn, Akbar interceded with British officials at the highest levels to bring about an out-of-court settlement between the National Crime Agency, UK, and Malik Riaz, directing payment of his frozen assets to the Pakistani State. Ironically, these proceeds also included the sale of Hassan Nawaz’s 1, Hyde Park Place house in London.

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The settlement was affected with the use of new civil powers known as Account Freezing Orders (AFOs), which allow law enforcement to target suspected proceeds of crime using a civil rather than a criminal burden of proof. Because it was a civil case, the NCA was able to settle it privately with Riaz rather than going to court to secure a forfeiture order. As a Pakistani lawyer (Farooq Quereshi) commented then, this was as if one was apprehended with the proceeds of a crime, but instead of such proceeds being reimbursed to the person wronged, they were used as reparations for another crime. …‘The amount recovered should [have] come straight back to Pakistan, rather than being put back into Malik Riaz’s pocket.’

The transactions were sought to be given a veneer of respectability in a Cabinet meeting, where Imran Khan steamrolled queries about what the sealed cover deal entailed. Later, four of his cabinet ministers, including Pervez Khattak, Zubeida Jalal, and the PM’s special assistant, Azam Khan, testified about these events before the National Accountability Bureau Court proceedings.

Despite claims from Imran’s legal team about this being yet another `bogus’ case which they will appeal against, this judgment demolishes in a fairly open and shut manner his high sounding attempt of following the Islamic tenet of `amr bil maroof’ (enjoining good and forbidding evil) without applying its appendage `nahi al munkar’ (stop all wrong doing) in his personal conduct. Bushra Bibi’s arrest now demonstrates how she proved to be the weakest link in the chain of corruption linked to this case. Her close friend Farah Gogi, who helped in selling gifts from the Toshakhana still absconds abroad.

Military leadership’s reaction against continuing PTI harangues in Social media

In recent statements, the military has taken a harsh line against criticism on social media, with army chief, Gen Asim Munir, himself warning that it was being used as a tool to spread anarchy and false information targeting the armed forces. The term ‘digital terrorism’ is increasingly being used by the military to describe the use of online spaces by its harshest critics — including PTI activists — whom it accuses of spreading falsehoods.

A Tamed Judiciary?

There have been murmurings in the media about dubious antecedents of Judge Nasir Rana, about how he was deemed unfit and his judicial powers were withdrawn by the Supreme Court in a 2004 case and his reappointment as a judge in 2022. Expectations of relief from a previously biased Islamabad High Court (IHC) still offer hope to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)’s social media trollers, who are continuing their tirade against Army Chief Gen Asim Munir from abroad. However, after the 26th Amendment, the higher judiciary seems tamed.

There are prospects of a major reshuffle of judges, induction of new incumbents to dilute the bias of `the gang of six’ there and possible appointment of a senior judge from Lahore High Court, Chaudhry Shahram Sarwar as senior puisne judge there, putting paid to hopes Judge Mohsin Akhtar Kayani may be harbouring of becoming Cheif Justice. The present CJ of IHC, Justice Amir Farooq could then be elevated to Supreme Court.

Impact on negotiation process with PTI

Though PTI leaders outside jail, like Omar Ayub and Shibli Faraz raised a hue and cry, the process of negotiations initiated recently with the ruling civilian regime’s committee is unlikely to be derailed by the Al Qadir Trust judgment. The talks are likely to be tortuous and long-winding, with a ’talk, talk and fight, fight’ approach being resorted to by either side. Much was made by PTI’s team of recent contacts made by Barrister Gohar Khan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister, Ali Amin Gandapur with Army Chief, Gen Asim Munir in Peshawar (Jan 13-14). However, official sources explained away these contacts in a different manner, suggesting this was only an interaction at a roundtable of politicians at Peshawar (Jan 13), where the Army Chief also emphasised that “there is a special relationship between the people and the army. In this relationship, the false narrative of a gap is mainly driven by a specific agenda from abroad”.

The Al Qadir Trust judgement has clearly emphasised the military’s writ and determination to keep Imran Khan behind bars for the foreseeable future. Imran seems to have reached a political ‘dead end’, becoming, in a sense, a prisoner of his own narrative of victimhood!

The writer is a former special secretary, Cabinet Secretariat. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views.