LAHORE – Former prime minister Imran Khan has once again reacted to Toshakhana gifts in his recent presser, days after an alleged clip about the sale of the expensive wristwatches surfaced.
Khan responded to media reports about the Toshakhana gifts, saying: ‘It’s my watch. I can sell it, and I can do whatever I want.’ He also lamented media hype over luxury watches gifted by the Saudi Crown Prince.
The PTI chief said Pakistan is being destroyed, inflation is at an alarming level and people are lying behind my watch, ignoring the economic disaster.
The defiant politician’s comments about the hot topic come days after a fresh audio clip, purportedly of his wife Bushra Bibi and close aid Zulfi Bukhari, surfaced in which the two discussed the sale of luxury watches.
In the audio clip, a voice believed to be of Bushra Bibi can be heard saying there are a few watches of Khan sahib. He has said to deliver them to you so to sell them as they are not in use by him, the voice purportedly that of Bushra Bibi added, to which Zulfi agreed.
This is not the first time when Khan responded to the controversy which may lead to his disqulification ahead of the general elections. In April, the former PM admitted purchasing gifts after paying half of the cost, adding that his government changed the policy of retaining gifts and increased the price.
The watches are believed to be the ones that the PTI chief received as gifts during his premiership. Khan and his wife Bushra reportedly retained at least 112 gift items worth more than Rs140 million, purchasing mere Rs38 million. The gifts included luxurious watches, diamond jewellery sets, pen and cuff links worth millions, dinner sets along with expensive perfumes.
Last month, a UAE-based businessman Umar Farooq Zahoor came up with claims about buying an ultra-expensive watch and other accessories. He claimed paying $2 million to Farah Gogi, a close friend of Imran Khan’s wife Bushra Bibi, in cash when he purchased the watch from her.
On the other hand, the luxury watch sellers Style Out Watches shared a clip in which they claimed that the wristwatch was sold by them in 2019 for $250 000. They later retracted their claim and also deleted the video from their social media account.
Khan blasts ex-COAS Bajwa and ruling alliance
In his latest address to the party workers and his supporters, Imran Khan also called out former army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa for “giving amnesty to the ruling alliance for their thefts through NRO-2”.
Khan alleged that his party’s senator Azam Swati was held and is facing a flurry of cases for revealing publicly that Bajwa gave NRO to thieves, which according to the PTI chief put Pakistan on brink of economic collapse.
Firing a fresh salvo at his opponents, Khans said the ruling alliance is only responsible for bringing the South Asian country to the verge of debt default, while he rapped mainstream media of turning a blind eye towards economic disaster.
The outspoken politician mentioned that the reason behind his today’s talk is to expose the things being discussed behind closed doors. He warned if we do not raise our voices then the common man will suffer the most.
He continued saying that ‘cabal of crooks’ does not care about the worsening economic situation, adding that they have huge deposits of looted money in foreign accounts.
Drawing a comparison of the foreign reserves and forex numbers, the PTI chief said USD was at Rs178 when he was removed from the premiership while we can’t even purchase a dollar for Rs250 as of now.
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He also reiterated that PTI got the government with the largest current account deficit, and GDP growth was at six percent when they left.
