Fawad demands names of all Toshakhana beneficiaries

Fawad Chaudhry said the names of generals and judges who got gifts should also be included in it.

ISLAMABAD (Dunya Web) - Former federal information minister Fawad Chaudhry has described the list of Toshakhana beneficiaries “incomplete” as it did not mention the gifts received by generals and judges. 

The former minister on Monday made the demand in a video message tweeted on PTI handle, a day after the federal government made public the details of gifts retained by rulers and dignitaries from 2002 to 2022.

Fawad said the list was “incomplete” as it only included records from 2002. He demanded that “a list of gifts retained before 1988 should also be released and the names of generals and judges who got gifts should also be included in it.”  

— PTI (@PTIofficial) March 13, 2023 

Fawad requested the Lahore High Court, on whose orders the Toshakhana record was made public, to form an independent judicial commission to determine if the payments of the gifts were made according to rules and whether they were declared. 

“Khawaja Asif has retained watches worth millions of rupees … has he shown these watches in his tax records? Does the FBR (Federal Board of Revenue) have the record of all these [gifts]?” he questioned. 

The Toshakhana was established in 1974 under the administrative control of the Cabinet Division and stores gifts given to rulers, parliamentarians, bureaucrats and officials by heads of foreign governments and states. The details of Toshakhana gifts was uploaded on the website of the Cabinet Division on Sunday. Prominent personalities who benefitted from the gifts included President Dr Arif Alvi, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, former premier Imran Khan, ex-prime minister Nawaz Sharif, ex-president Asif Ali Zardari and Pervez Musharraf. 

The record showed that most of the gifts were retained free of cost except for a few ones. In return for the gifts received from foreign dignitaries, these public office holders, especially the rulers, gave away gifts worth millions of rupees to the foreign delegates.

In his video statement, Fawad said the list had revealed how the “Sharifs and Zardaris looted the Toshakhana”. 

“It is another evidence of the way these families betrayed the people of Pakistan. In the last 15 months, they have been levelling accusations against Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi. 

“But the reality is that Imran Khan was the only ruler who retained gifts in a lawful way,” he said, adding that the PTI chairman had retained the least number of gifts.

He claimed that the Zardari and Sharif families “blatantly misused the law” and retained gifts worth millions.