Pakistan Toshakhana: Documents of Toshakhana made public, Imran, Zardari and Nawaz ‘looted’ Pakistan like this

Amidst the controversy over Toshakhana gifts sold by former Prime Minister Imran Khan, the Pakistan government has for the first time made public the details of foreign gifts held by officials. Details of the Toshakhana or State Depository surfaced on the website of the Cabinet Division on Sunday, showing gifts held by former presidents, prime ministers, federal cabinet members, politicians, bureaucrats, retired generals, judges and journalists from 2002 to 2022.

Whose names are there in the 400-page document?

The 446-page document shows that those who benefited include President Arif Alvi, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, former Prime Minister Imran Khan, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, former President Asif Ali Zardari, late military dictator Pervez Musharraf, former Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, Former PM Yousuf Raza Gilani, Former PM Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Former PM Raja Pervez Ashraf, Former PM Zafarullah Khan Jamali, President of the Senate Sadiq Sanjrani, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, Khurshid Kasuri , Abdul Hafeez Sheikh, Jahangir Tareen, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, and Ataur Rehman etc. The document showed that except for a few most of the gifts were held by the office holders for free.

Zardari and Nawaz Sharif obtained a bulletproof vehicle each during their visits and kept them after paying some money to Toshakhana. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan and his wife were seized with five costly wrist watches, jewelry and other items. Pervez Musharraf and Shaukat Aziz kept hundreds of foreign gifts without paying a single penny. In return for gifts received from foreign dignitaries, these public functionaries, especially rulers, presented gifts worth lakhs of rupees to the foreign delegates. Details revealed that Zardari retained a BMW 760 Li white (Security Edition) on January 26, 2009. The car was valued at Rs 27.3 million, while the former president retained it after paying a little over Rs 4 million.