PM Imran, Shehzad Akbar accused of owning multiple properties in UK

Justice Qazi Faiz Isa recently submitted documents to the Supreme Court (SC) to substantiate his position in the petition he has filed challenging the presidential reference against him on Wednesday.

The documents allege that there are six properties in the United Kingdom (UK) registered in the name of Prime Minister Imran Khan, whereas the PM's aide on accountability, Shehzad Akbar, allegedly owns five properties in the country.

Justice Isa said the information has been obtained from the search engine 192.com.

"According to the government, the properties of my [Justice Isa] family members were also searched from the same website," he said.

While accessing the website for property information of other government lawmakers, Justice Isa found that, as per the records of the website, there are five properties in the name of Shehzad Akbar, seven properties in the name of PM's aide on Overseas Pakistanis Zulfikar Bukhari, while Usman Dar and former Information Minister Firdous Ashiq Awan also own properties in the UK, besides Jahangir Tareen and former president General Pervez Musharraf.

Noting that the petition does not allege that the aforementioned lawmakers made properties from illicit sources of funds, Justice Isa contended that the Federal Board of revenue (FBR) should determine how much taxable income the government figures have disclosed and the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) should separately determine whether these politicians have laundered money abroad or have transferred the amounts in a legitimate way.

"The petition seeks the annulment of the Assets Recovery Unit (ARU) with all its initiatives, and withdrawal of all salaries and benefits from Shehzad Akbar and ARU expert International Criminal Lawyer Zia Mustafa Naseem," he added.

However, Shehzad Akbar in a tweet responding to a journalist, rejected the allegation that he owns property in the UK, saying he may take legal action against the 'defamatory' accusation.