Imran Khan defends his wife’s friend who has been accused of money laundering
Islamabad:
The News International reported that the wealth of Farhat Shahzadi, a close friend of the wife of former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, grew rapidly during his government.
Farhat Shahzadi and her family were busy expanding their business to other countries and registering companies in the United Kingdom when Imran Khan was asking expatriate Pakistanis to invest in the country.
As per news reports, Farhat Shehzadi’s family registered/acquired four companies whose nature of business mentioned in the documents is SIC or dealing in real estate business in UK during Imran Khan’s government. From 2019 to 2021, three companies were registered/acquired by Farhat’s sister and one by Farhat Shehzadi and her husband.
Farhat Shehzadi’s sister Musarrat Khan owns or is owned by about half a dozen companies in the UK. Farhat Shehzadi, commonly known as Farah Khan/Farah Gogi and her husband Ahsan Iqbal Jameel, who are currently living abroad, are facing serious allegations of corruption. However, as reported by The News International, Imran Khan has termed these allegations as political harassment by the current government.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan has defended Farhat Shehzadi in a press conference. The FIA has registered a case against him under the Anti Money Laundering Act and the government is planning to bring him back to Pakistan through Interpol.
According to a report in The News International, Farah Khan’s wealth grew exponentially during Imran Khan’s rule. His declared assets have increased by more than four times since 2018. Farah Khan, her husband Ahsan Iqbal Jameel along with three other partners acquired the company Goldstar Euro Limited in the United Kingdom on May 14, 2020.
Quoting sources, the report said that Farah Khan and her husband had acquired the company for the purpose of money laundering. However, Farah Khan’s husband Ahsan Iqbal Jameel denied these allegations and called them “mere allegations”.
Farah Khan’s sister Musarrat Khan registered a company Black Apple Investments Limited on November 9, 2021. According to the documents, the company deals in the sale and purchase of real estate and the management of real estate on a fee or contract basis.
Al Muej Limited was another company registered by Farah Khan’s sister in 2019. Farah Khan runs different companies by this name in Pakistan, including Al Muej Dairy. In its FIR, the FIA said that according to news reports, Farhat Shahzadi acquired an industrial plot of 10.3 acres for Al Muej Dairy in Faisalabad Industrial Area at a concessional rate.
Musarat Khan acquired another company DMK Enterprises Limited on July 4, 2019. However, the company was dissolved in March 2021. Apart from this, she was the owner of some other companies which included Dayan Enterprises Limited, Maximum MK Trading Limited and DKhans Constructions Limited etc.
According to the documents, the money is in the accounts of Farah Khan, Ahsan Iqbal Jameel and Musarrat Khan. However, the outflow was not traced to any document, the report said.
According to news reports, Farah Khan’s declared assets stood at Pakistani Rupees (PKR) 231,635,297 in 2017, before Imran Khan came to power. However, within the first three years of Imran Khan’s government, Farah’s declared assets reached 971 million Pakistani rupees in 2021.
Farah Khan and her husband also took advantage of the money laundering scheme (Tax Amnesty Scheme 2019) during Imran Khan’s government. As per news reports, the couple had declared PKR 328.7 million and PKR 20 million respectively under the Tax Amnesty Scheme 2019.
Ahsan Iqbal Jameel termed the FIA FIR as “purely political persecution”. He further said that Pakistan’s Interior Minister, Maryam Nawaz Sharif, PM’s advisor Ata Tarar and other government representatives have publicly made such threats against Farhat Shahzadi.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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