AGP Begins Audit of Gifts Received by Imran Khan As PM

The Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) has started an audit of precious gifts received by former Prime Minister Imran Khan (PM) during the last four years.

Sources told ProPakistani that the AGP office has tasked the Federal Audit Directorate to audit the gifts received by the former PM and his cabinet during the tour of foreign countries.

The AGP has started this audit under the direction of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC). It is pertinent to note that chairman PAC, Noor Alam Khan, had directed AGP to conduct an audit of Toshakhana on 18th August 2022

Chairman PAC had sought the opinion of the members to look into the details of gifts received and issued from Toshakhana over the last four years. The members present in the meeting unanimously agreed thereto and directed the AGP to conduct an audit of the Toshakhana over the last four years and report to PAC.

The PAC also asked the secretary cabinet division to not replace the original gifts of Toshakana should with low-quality items in the future.

Toshakhana case is being widely debated in recent days. Recently, PM Shehbaz Sharif constituted a committee to prepare a new Toshakhana policy.

According to the rules, a gift received by a government functionary from a leader of another country is deposited in the treasury. The gifts which are not retained remain deposited with the treasury or can be auctioned and the money acquired through the sale is transferred to the public exchequer.

Those interested to retain the gift can do so by paying a certain amount of the value, which was 20 percent at the time the former PM had retained the gifts. Earlier, the rules required the payment of 50 percent to retain these gifts, which were revised in December 2018.