Gifts galore

In compliance with the orders of the Lahore High Court, the federal government has declassified the record of Toshakhana gifts going back till 2002. This is the first time in history that the government has made this list public, and is no doubt a welcome revelation given the fact that there seems little justification for keeping the record secret. The Toshakhana record shows the gifts given to government officials, presidents, prime ministers, bureaucrats, and even journalists and details who has retained the gifts – after paying the minimum cost as per the law after evaluation of the gift’s worth by the Cabinet Division – and who has sent it on to the Toshakhana repository. The Toshakhana issue had surfaced some years back after a journalist decided to pursue former prime minister Imran Khan’s Toshakhana record. This resulted in Imran Khan finally declaring the income he had earned by selling off the Toshakhana gifts that he had retained but did not declare. The case led to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) disqualifying Imran Khan for not sharing details of Toshakhana gifts and proceeds from their sale during his time as prime minister.

In all this, it has largely been forgotten both by the government and even the media that the Imran Khan Toshakhana case is a tad bit confusing for most people. As far as the case against Imran goes, it pertains to misdeclaration of assets – the Toshakhana gifts, in this case – which is why Imran was disqualified under Article 63(1)(p) of the constitution read with Section 137, 167 and 173 of the Elections Act, 2017. The chronology of when the gifts were sold and whether the payment to the Toshakhana was made before or after selling the gifts is another bone of contention. The issue has never been one of obtaining gifts from the Toshakhana through legal means or even selling them but that Imran did not declare them as a parliamentarian.

Now that the Toshakhana list of gifts retained – some of the list being rather embarrassing – is out, the PTI has embraced it in its usual style, once again showing just how well the party can spin an event to its advantage. There is little by way of counter by the government which of course suits a media-savvy PTI very well. The fact is that, morally and ethically grey though the Toshakhana record may be, legally retaining the gifts is allowed. Let’s also remember that there is already a NAB reference against Nawaz Sharif and Asif Zardari for retaining expensive cars from Toshakhana while former PM Yousuf Raza Gilani is accused of facilitating Asif Ali Zardari and Mian Nawaz Sharif in this regard. The real issue here is the law that regulates the Toshakhana. Pakistan’s rules for retaining Toshakhana gifts are quite lax. Some countries allow public auctions of the gifts as per the market price while others send them to official museum(s). The good that can come out of this whole saga is that the Toshakhana gift evaluation process can be streamlined. The gifts should be evaluated at market price and then either sold to the recipient at the same price or at least more than the 50 per cent that is required now. There has to be an independent valuation authority so that expensive and precious gifts like the Graff watch that was given to Imran should have been evaluated at the market price. There should also be a rule that precious and rare gifts should not be allowed to be retained but should instead be displayed like they do in the US at the National Archive or in Switzerland at the National Museum Zurich. It is a bit disturbing that our rulers need to be reminded that these gifts are not given to them by states and state officials because of personal friendships; these are presents by other states to representatives of Pakistan. As such, only the state of Pakistan has right over these gifts and their value.