LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Monday ordered the Cabinet Division to provide within a week the record of recipients of foreign gifts from the Toshakhana from the independence of the country in 1947 to 2001.
The directive was issued during a hearing on Monday of the government’s intra-court appeal challenging the single bench order to release the state gift depository’s records of successive governments of Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto between 1990 and 2001.
During the hearing, a two-member bench, comprising Justice Shahid Bilal Hassan and Justice Raza Qureshi, inquired about the grounds for the government’s plea.
The court was informed by Additional Attorney General Munawar Iqbal Duggal, the counsel for the government, that the bench had previously ordered that the names of individuals who gave the gifts be made public. However, the names were not disclosed to “avoid damaging Pakistan’s foreign relations.”
Duggal further said the government had already released Toshakhana records from 2002 onwards, and all details have been uploaded on the website of the Cabinet Division.
In response, the bench questioned whether those who received gifts from Toshakhana were declaring them or not. Duggal maintained that anyone who is representing a state is supposed to declare the gift.
He clarified the government was not attempting to conceal the records, but rather the records prior to 2002 were not computerised and verified.
The court sought the records from 1947 to 2001 and issued notice to the petitioner of the initial case seeking Toshakhana records, for the next hearing on Monday.
The case centres on a government department known as Toshakhana — which during the Mughal era referred to the treasure houses kept by the subcontinent’s princely rulers to store and display gifts lavished on them.
Government officials must declare all gifts to the Cabinet Division, but are allowed to keep those below a certain value.
More expensive items must go to Toshakhana under the administrative control of the Cabinet Division, but in some cases, the recipient can buy them back at around 50 percent of their value — a discount former prime minister Imran Khan raised from 20 percent while in office.
The ruling coalition of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) parties has for months alleged Khan and his wife, Bushra Maneka, received lavish gifts worth millions during trips abroad. They included luxury watches, jewellery, designer handbags and perfumes.
