Miftah takes Imran to task for defending ‘a little money-laundering’

Islamabad (HRNW) Federal Finance Minister Miftah Ismail has taken PTI Chairman Imran Khan to task for defending disgraced businessman Arif Naqvi and for allegedly saying that Naqvi had committed “only a little money-laundering.”

At a press conference on Sunday, the finance minister also questioned how Imran Khan formed several trusts to get lands allotted in his and his wife’s name.

He said the PTI chief must face courts the way PML-N’s Nawaz Sharif was summoned over a hundred times.

Imran Khan in an interview with ARY News on Saturday defended Arif Naqvi, who according to Financial Times raised and collected funds abroad and transferred the money to PTI.

Naqvi, who headed Abraaj Group, is under house arrest in London and faces extradition to the United States.

During the interview, Imran Khan also referred to BCCI bank, which collapsed after facing a money-laundering investigation in the West.

Miftah Ismail, calling out Imran Khan for his statements against the PML-N government, said that the PTI government gave back £190 million (seized in the UK) to Bahria Town in exchange for lands that Imran Khan got allotted in the name of trusts which he formed with his wife.

“Why did you give back £190 million? Was it your money that you gave it back or it was the nation’s money? Who gave you the right to give back that money which belong to the country to an individual. Because you were getting five carat rings. Because you were getting land in the name of Al Qadir trust. And you made a business of forming trusts so that you and your wife could get lands wherever you want.”

Referring to Imran Khan’s  interview, Miftah said, “So you say that if Arif Naqvi has done a little money-laundering its is not an issue. If therer is a little corruption in Malam Jabba, it is not an issue. If there is a little corruption in Peshawar BRT, it is not an issue. Was it a little corrution?”

Miftah challenged Imran Khan for an investigation in the Peshawar BRT project, saying that Shehbaz Sharif built a 29km long BRT in Lahore with Rs27 billion and the PTI constructed the same length of BRT with Rs100 billion. “Why are you afraid of investigation. … Why did you have to go to the Supreme Court against Peshawar High Court vericts” in BRT and Malam Jabba cases.