PTI to take legal action against Umar Zahoor after Toshakhana saga

• Chaudhry says Toshakhana gifts were not sold to Zahoor.
• He defends Farah, says she had no role in the sale.
• PTI leaders say Zardari, Nawaz also took gifts from Toshakhana.

ISLAMABAD: PTI Wednesday announced to take legal action against Dubai-based businessman Umar Farooq Zahoor in the Emirates after he revealed buying Toshakana gifts given to ex-prime minister Imran Khan by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman.

Zahoor has claimed that Farah Gogi and Shahzad Akbar sold the expensive Graff wristwatch — worth at least Rs2 billion — to him, and he has evidence to back it.

In an affidavit, the businessman has listed four gifts he purchased from Farah — a close friend of Khan's wife Bushra Bibi, who was also embroiled in corruption cases recently.

In a press conference alongside PTI leader Zulfi Bukhari, PTI Senior Vice President Fawad Chaudhry said the party has decided to initiate legal proceedings against Zahoor as his claims were baseless.

"In 2018, the Saudi crown prince gifted a watch to Imran Khan and the controversy over the watch's price has been going on for a while now," the former federal minister said.

Chaudhry said the watch was priced at Rs100 million, and in line with the law regulating Toshakhana, Khan sold it for more than Rs50 million in the market and filed capital gain tax on it.

Divulging into the details of Toshakahan's procedures, the PTI leader said when the gifts given to state officials arrive in Pakistan, they are deposited into Toshakhana.

He said the chief of protocol receives the gifts and brings them to Pakistan, and he is the official who deposits them into Toshakhana. Then, the Cabinet Division determines its value, Chaudhry said.

"The law states that 20% of the gift's value should be deposited in the national exchequer. We amended the law and made it 50%," he said.

Defending the former prime minister, Chaudhry said the gift items were not sold to the Dubai-based businessman and Bushra Bibi's friend had no role in their sale.

"The watch was not sold to anyone named Umar Zahoor. The watch was not handed over to Farah for sale and she has no role in it," he said, as he levelled allegations against the millionaire.

Chaudhry said Zahoor has a total of three brothers who are serving jail time in Norway. He added that the businessman himself was facing criminal cases.

The PTI leader further said that Zahoor took his children to Dubai on illegal documentation.

For his part, Bukhari said that former president Asif Ali Zardari and ex-prime minister Nawaz Sharif also took gifts from Toshakahan but no uproar was witnessed when they did it.

"Graff has several shops in Dubai, the price of the watch can be obtained from any of those shops. The dealer, who brought the watch from us, sold it at a rate of more than Rs60 million."

The dealer who sold the watch is not in the country nowadays, he said, noting that the PTI leadership had the name and number of the person.