Toshakhana Case: After becoming the Prime Minister in 2018, Imran Khan went on a trip to Saudi Arabia. During this, the Crown Prince gifted a gold watch to Imran. How Imran Khan was ousted from power due to this clock and his membership of the National Assembly was cancelled, read the old story.
Image Credit source: TV9 GFX
How a watch can dislodge a person from power, Pakistan’s former prime minister imran Khan is proof of this. It also has a story of its own Toshakhana controversy Started and now the police is gearing up to arrest Imran. For the last 18 hours in the Toshakhana case, the police have been standing at Imran’s house in Zaman Park to arrest him. Imran’s party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) workers are opposing this arrest. The protest has turned into a violent demonstration.
When the police used tear gas and water cannon to stop the protest, the party supporters started pelting stones and petrol bombs in response. The foundation of this whole ruckus was laid due to the watch which was given to Imran Khan by the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia.
The clock that started Imran’s bad times
In the general elections held on July 25, 2018, Imran Khan’s party PTI won 149 seats. Announced a coalition government with PML-Q, MQM-P and BAP. Imran took oath as Prime Minister on 18 August. After this he started touring many countries.
Imran received many gifts during his foreign trip. The most special in this was the watch which was given to Imran by the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia. According to media reports, this watch was of gold. Diamonds were studded in it and the price was Rs 16 crores. Imran talked about giving this watch to his wife Bushra Begum. Bushra Begum assigned the responsibility of finding out the price of that watch to one of her employees.
It was learned that its cost was around Rs 16 crore. That’s why Bushra Begum decided to sell that watch in Saudi Arabia only. Bushra’s staff reached a showroom to sell the watch. Due to the high cost of the watch, the owner of the showroom called the company that made it.
It was learned in the conversation that such watches were specially made by the Prince of Saudi Arabia. The showroom owner gave this information to the Prince’s office and said, your special watch has arrived at our place for sale. After discovering this, the showroom was allowed to buy the watch.
Watch deal and Imran’s sophistry
Imran did not want his country to know this. After the matter came to light, Imran argued that it would have put national security in danger and relations with the gifting country in jeopardy. This matter came up for discussion. After this, the matter of many such gifts came to the fore which were not deposited in the Pakistani government treasury i.e. Toshakhana.
The opposition made this issue an issue in the National Assembly. According to media reports, while being the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan received 58 gifts within 3 years. Their cost was crores of rupees. The opposition said that many of the gifts Imran received during his foreign tour, he sold them in the market at a higher price or kept them with him and deposited a nominal amount in the Toshakhana.
After continuous uproar by the opposition, the then Speaker of the National Assembly of Pakistan, Raja Parvez Ashraf, took the matter into cognizance and appealed to the Election Commission to intervene.
Imran came from the throne to the floor
A motion of no confidence was first brought against Imran in the National Assembly. Imran has become the first Prime Minister in the history of Pakistan, who was ousted from power through a no-confidence motion. Taking action against Imran in the whole matter, the Election Commission canceled his assembly membership. After this, the court of Pakistan issued an order for his arrest.
However, despite all this, Imran kept saying that the opposition maligned his image for political gains. Now the matter has reached the point of arrest and ruckus is going on in Pakistan.
