Inamullah Shah admits to receiving double salary from PMO, PTI.
Private appraiser says Khan’s ex-PS told him to value set at Rs5m.
NAB officials say Bulgari jewellery set actual worth was Rs75m.
RAWALPINDI: Eye-opening revelations have surfaced in confessional statements of key witnesses obtained by Geo News, concerning the undervaluation of a jewellery set in the Toshakhana 2 case against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi.
The confessional statements are of Khan’s former personal secretary, Inamullah Shah, and the private appraiser of the Bulgari jewellery set, Sohaib Abbasi.
The jewellery set was gifted to Khan and his wife by the Saudi royal family when the former held the office of the PM.
In his statement recorded before the court on Thursday , Shah said that he not only received “double salaries” from both the PTI and his government job from 2019 to 2021, but also coerced a private appraiser to undervalue the Bulgari jewellery set.
“I asked [Sohaib] Abbasi to reduce the value of the jewellery set,” he said.
“I was fired from the job due to Bushra Bibi’s displeasure; there was no complaint of double salary [she] was suspicious that my brother has links with Jahangir Tareen,” Shah remarked, adding that he was posted in Bani Gala as the comptroller of the Prime Minister’s House (PMO).
Echoing his remarks, private appraiser Abbasi admitted to undervaluing the jewellery set due to fear and at the direction of Khan’s former principal secretary who told him to value it at Rs5 million.
“[Inamullah] Shah threatened that if the value is not reduced, he will be blacklisted from government departments,” Abbasi told the court.
The appraiser further said that he has recorded his confessional statement regarding undervaluing the jewellery set before the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) chairman as well as a magistrate.
As per NAB officials, the Bulgari jewellery set’s actual worth was at Rs75 million, but the former PM undervalued it via the private appraiser at Rs5.9 million, which included a necklace, bracelet, earrings and a ring.
Bulgari jewellery set case
The reference filed by NAB was related to a jewellery set gifted to Bushra by the Saudi royal family when her husband Khan was the prime minister from 2018 to 2022.
The anti-graft watchdog further alleged that during his term as prime minister, Khan and his wife had received a total of 108 gifts from different heads of state and foreign dignitaries.
It alleged that the former first lady received the jewellery set — comprising a ring, bracelet, necklace a pair of earrings — on her visit to Saudi Arabia in May 2021. It said the PTI founder and his wife illegally kept the jewellery set.
The reference states that the deputy military secretary briefed the Toshakhana section officer to estimate and declare the price of the jewellery set, which it mentioned, was not deposited in Toshakhana.
The jewellery company sold the necklace for €300,000 and earrings for €80,000 on May 25, 2018. The information regarding the price of the bracelet and ring could not be obtained from the company.
On May 28, 2021, the price of the jewellery set was estimated at Rs70.56 million; the price of the necklace was Rs50.64 million and the price of the earrings included in the jewellery valued at Rs10.50 million back then.
According to the rules, the 50% price of the jewellery set is approximately Rs35.28 million. The national exchequer suffered a loss of approximately Rs35.28 million after the jewellery was undervalued, as per the reference.