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Tuesday March 19, 2024

Aleema says made fortune through inherited property, sewing machines

Prime Minister Imran Khan’s sister Aleema Khanum appeared in the Supreme Court on Monday in a case concerning the offshore properties owned by Pakistanis. Aleema is named as one of the benamidars of a property in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The court had ordered her to appear in person.

By our correspondents
January 15, 2019

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan’s sister Aleema Khanum appeared in the Supreme Court on Monday in a case concerning the offshore properties owned by Pakistanis. Aleema is named as one of the benamidars of a property in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The court had ordered her to appear in person.

In her very first statement shared with the media after disclosure about her New Jersey property, Aleema Khan maintained that her foreign assets had nothing to do with the charity funding. Her message to the media reads as, “A section of the media has tried to insinuate that the assets owned by me have been obtained unlawfully or siphoned off from charities given to Shaukat Khanum Memorial Trust. This is patently false and rejected. SKMT was established as a charitable hospital in the memory of my late mother and its accounts are audited by internationally well-known firms. As for the properties, they were acquired through known and lawfully earned income arising out of my business and my husband's assets. I have been a successful entrepreneur engaged in the textile export business for over 20 years. My textile export business has represented international buyers and assisted Pakistani textile mills in business development, procuring orders which have averaged over Rs2 billion worth of exports yearly from Pakistan and contributed to the economy.

“The Dubai property was acquired through an investment of Rs3 crore which was sent through banking channels along with a loan obtained from a bank in Dubai.

“The property in New Jersey was acquired through an investment of Rs1.4 crore through banking channels along with a loan obtained from a bank in the United States. This joint property was purchased for business purposes. The property was declared and applicable tax paid under the law.

“It pains me that an entirely false, slanderous and malicious campaign has been launched to suggest any link between my properties and my volunteer work for charities to which I have dedicated my life.”

Meanwhile, a three-member bench of the apex court, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, heard the case. An audit member of the Federal Bureau of Revenue (FBR) and FIA Director General Basheer Memon were among the officials present in the court.

The chief justice reprimanded the FBR auditor for the eye-wash investigation into the case of 44 politicians and their benamidars having offshore properties. The FBR representative informed the apex court that the FIA had provided data of 895 people and 1,365 properties. He said around 360 people had benefited from the government’s tax amnesty scheme to protect 484 properties. He further submitted that Rs340 million had so far been recovered, while another Rs768 million was expected to be recovered soon.

The CJP remarked that the case progress had not impressed him. "When you have all the data, you should have taken action within hours. Matter would never have been taken up if the court had not taken notice,” he observed. The FBR representative submitted that 157 people had not yet come forward and that the FBR had written to the Dubai authorities for their data.

Another report submitted by the FIA to the court claimed that 1,211 Pakistani citizens owned 2,154 properties in the UAE. It revealed that another 345 people had been served notices. The report further said 61 people remained unidentified, five had died, 10 were uncooperative, while one was absconding.

According to the report, 413 people benefited from the tax amnesty scheme that ended in August last year, while 167 people had declared their properties to the FBR. It further stated that 79 people had declared their properties in the tax returns filed with the FBR, while 97 people had disowned their properties in the UAE. Previously, the FIA had identified 1,115 people owning properties in the UAE.