Punjab Home Minister Attaullah Tarrar has said the government plans on issuing red notices to bring former First Lady Bushra Bibi’s close friend Farah Khan back to Pakistan to face the corruption cases against her.
Addressing a press conference in Lahore alongside provincial Law Minister Malik Muhammad Ahmed Khan, he accused Farah Khan of being the front person for former prime minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi.
Tarar said that the government would bring Farah Khan and her husband Ahsan Jameel Gujjar back through a red notice, which is an international request sent to the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) for extradition of an individual.
He said the Interior Ministry had already been contacted about the issuance of the red warrants.
Farah Khan had reportedly fled to Dubai after a corruption investigation was initiated against her by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB). Since then, she has been named in many other corruption cases as well.
“The NAB has authorised an inquiry against Farhat Shahzadi alias Farah Khan and others on the allegations of accumulation of illegal assets beyond known sources of income, money laundering and maintaining various accounts in the name of different businesses,” the anti-corruption watchdog said in a statement, regarding her first corruption case.
On July 2, Farah Khan and her mother were booked on charges of illegal plot allocation in Faisalabad. According to the charges, a 10-acre industrial plot originally worth Rs 600 million was allegedly transferred to her for only Rs 83 million.
Tarar said, “Farah, her mother Bushra Khan and (Farah’s husband) Ahsan Jamil Gujjar are involved in this deal,” adding, “The case will not be dragged on for too long, as it is an open and shut case.”
The home minister maintained that Imran Khan should call Farah Khan back to Pakistan if he believes she is innocent. “I must say here that Imran is not bringing her back here because she and her husband will become approvers within an hour of their arrest.”
Farah Khan’s counsel Azhar Siddique said legal action was being taken against Tarar’s press conference and a defamation suit would be filed soon.
