Pakistan: Former PM Imran Khan accused of receiving bribes via frontwoman

Former Prime Minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan was on Tuesday accused of receiving bribes and other corruption proceeds via his alleged frontwoman, Farah Shehzadi alias Gogi, with millions in cash deposited into her account over three years, media reports said.

This was disclosed by special assistant to the Prime Minister on interior and legal affairs with the status of Federal Minister, Attaullah Tarar, in a news conference in Islamabad on Tuesday, Samaa TV reported.

Tarar claimed that he had managed to obtain data from banks about the transactions made in Farah's accounts.

He said that in 2018, Farah had created 10-12 bank accounts, Samaa TV reported.

He added that as per the data collected, some 969 cash deposit transactions into Farah's accounts were recorded in the past three years when Usman Buzdar was the Chief minister of Pakistan Punjab.

He claimed that the total value of these cash deposits was around Rs 1.6 billion.

Showing a document of transactions with the name of the depositor and the recipient, Tarar claimed that it is the evidence of Imran Khan's alleged corruption, Samaa TV reported.

He also claimed that it was Khan who had engineered Farah's escape from the country because if she is summoned by the authorities, she will disclose all of Khan's secrets.

Tarar also claimed that Khan made sure that Farah benefited from allegedly tailored amnesty schemes, Samaa TV reported.

He added that they have also written to the relevant authorities to secure a red warrant for Farah's arrest and repatriation to Pakistan to face questioning.

Tarar claimed that Khan was seeking exemption from personal appearance and other technicalities to delay his cases and to have them dismissed rather than face them.

He added that it cannot take six years to decide the foreign funding case while Nawaz Sharif's case and Maryam Nawaz's case were decided within months.

"I sincerely appeal to the Supreme Court to hear Imran Khan's case on day-to-day basis," Tarar said, as he sought fairness in trial, Samaa TV reported.