Imran Khan ran his campaign and has been trying to run his government under the image of Mr Clean. While we at New Pakistan have always been skeptical of such claims, the story of Mr Khan’s sister, Aleema Khan needs to be discussed.
In October 2018 a report submitted by Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to the Supreme Court revealed that “Several prominent political figures and government officials, including Prime Minister Imran Khan’s sister Aleema Khanum, own benami properties in Dubai.”
On November 30, 2018, then Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar during the hearing of a suo motu case pertaining to foreign property holdings of Pakistani nationals had inquired from Chairman FBR “if the premier’s sister owns any property in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and further inquired if she had benefited from an amnesty scheme.”
In early January an investigative report in The News proved that Ms Khan “owns expensive property in the United States. According to Ahmed Noorani, Aleema Khan owns three flats of a four-story building in New Jersey, while her business partner owns a single flat. The current worth of Aleema Khan’s New Jersey property is over Rs45 crore, Noorani said, adding she holds 75 percent of the property.”
Subsequent investigations have revealed that Ms Khan owns considerable assets within Pakistan as well. “Aleema Khan, Prime Minister Imran Khan s sister who has been accused of concealing her assets, owns a company named Cotcom Sourcing Pvt Ltd, according to data available with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), which is the financial regulatory body in Pakistan. Dunya News has obtained documents which reveal that she is presently the CEO of the Cotcom Sourcing Pvt Ltd, whereas her sons Shahrez Azeem Khan and Shershah Khan are directors of the company. Besides, her company is also included in the Active Taxpayers List (ATL) of the Federal Bureau of Revenue (FBR). According to the documents, the company paid Rs18,27000 tax for the financial year 2016, Rs32,82000 for the financial year 2015, Rs24,90000 for the financial year 2014. For the financial year 2013, Aleema Khan paid Rs20,62000 tax, Rs1,58000 for the year 2014, Rs1,86000 for the year 2015 and Rs1,30000 for the year 2016.”
When questioned Ms Khan argued that she had bought the Dubai and US properties “through her export business and assets transferred from her father. “I am a businesswoman for the last 20 years and nothing was hidden from the concerned authorities. I have declared everything in my wealth statement, she responded when questioned whether she is benamidar of PM Imran Khan.”
What we at New Pakistan find interesting is that Ms Khan claims she inherited lots of property from her father and she used that to become the businesswoman that she is today.
However, Mr Khan always claimed that his father di dnot have enough money, that he and his sister were raised poor and that the reason he decided to build a hospital in his mother’s memory was because she died and their family did not have enough money for her treatment.
We wonder what the truth really is.
