For the first time in Pakistani history, the federal government made public the list of Toshakhana gifts given since 2002 on Sunday.
The news comes just days after Defence Minister Khawaja Asif stated that the federal government had agreed not to declassify data from the state repository, which stores gifts received by public officials from other governments and foreign dignitaries.
The 446-page document contains information from 2002 to 2023. It lists the gifts given to presidents, prime ministers, and federal ministers. The current coalition government received 59 gifts from various countries in 2023.
According to the records released by the government, 224 gifts were received in 2022, 116 gifts in 2021, 175 gifts in 2018 and 91 gifts in 2014 while 177 gifts were received by government officials in 2015.
The document carries records of gifts retained by later former president Gen (retd) Parvez Musharraf, former prime ministers Shaukat Aziz, Yusuf Raza Gilani, Raja Parvez Ashraf, Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khan.
The record shows, Imran Khan bought a diamond-gold watch worth Rs85 million, a pair of cufflinks worth Rs5.67 million, a pen worth Rs1.5 million and a ring worth Rs8.7 million. The former premier retained all the gifts by paying around Rs20 million.
Besides that, the PTI chief retained another watch worth Rs3.88 million by paying Rs754,000.
TK-Record (1) (2) by mahmood9917 on Scribd
All public officeholders, including parliamentarians and bureaucrats, are required to deposit gifts in the Toshakhana department, which was established in 1978. When the Election Commission of Pakistan initiated proceedings against former Prime Minister Imran Khan for disclosing the details of Toshakhana gifts retained by him in the declaration, the department came under scrutiny.
In the Toshakhana case, the ECP also disqualified the PTI chief as a member of the National Assembly last year for failing to disclose the gifts. A criminal case has also been referred to a district and sessions court in the federal capital by the electoral body.
