Pakistan's presidents and prime ministers who benefitted from Toshakhana

The list of the Toshakhana beneficiaries since the year 2002 has raised various questions, but, according to officials the value of the gifts and the unspoken policy of reciprocation has yet to come under scrutiny.

The Pakistan government recently released data over the weekend which revealed that it wasn't just PTI Chief Imran Khan who benefitted from the rules regarding the purchase of gifts from the official state registry, reports Dawn. 

Among the usual suspects found from the data are various politicians and bureaucrats.

The list of retention includes shirts, handkerchiefs, sarees, fabric for shirts, watches, fruits, ornamental daggers, and cufflinks etc.

Former Pakistani president Asif Ali Zardari received at least 182 presents during his presidency and retained almost all the gifts after making some payments against these presents. Some of Zardar's gifts are among the most expensive presents retained by a public office holder.

Presents retained by the former president include a Lexus and a BMW worth a little more than Rs107 million but paid Rs16.17m to retain these vehicles on 26 January 2009.

Imran Khan, former Pakistani prime minister who is currently facing court proceedings, received and retained gifts worth more than Rs100m by 24 September 2018. Both him and his wife got more than 111 gifts and retained most of them, as per the released documents.

Nawaz Sharif, also a former prime minister, along with his wife received at least 65 presents. Similar to the rest, the former PM chose to keep most of these gifts that include a bulletproof vehicle and expensive watches. In January 2016, Sharif received presents worth Rs38 million and paid Rs7.6 million to retain these gifts.  In February 2016, Sharif paid a little more than Rs3.2 million to retain presents worth over Rs16 million.

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif received a Rolex watch worth Rs140m last year in May. As per the document, the watch that he deposited in Toshakhana was put on display at the Prime Minister's House.

The late military dictator Pervez Musharraf showed complete disregard for the Toshakhana rules when it came to the six dozen gifts both he and his family received over the years. Most of them he retained free of cost or after payments of a meagre amount. On 22 April 2006, he was presented with a Toyota Lexus whose value could not be assessed since the former president failed to deposit it in the state repository. He also never declared the gift publicly.

His prime minister, Shaukat Aziz, followed in his footsteps. He declared a Toyota Lexus on the same day but did not deposit the present.

According to Dawn, experts claim that the assessed cost was kept significantly low, while the retention cost was even nominal for the undue benefit of the recipients.

Experts even claim that the exchange rate of the articles with the passage of time are being omitted. The cost of 'the gifts', experts say, would have been shocking if inflation and the exchange rate were taken into account.

Javed Hassan, an economist, interpreted the purchases and explained, "These gifts were retained at 20% of the assessed value in 2009. Subsequently, the price was raised to 50%. This 30% becomes a huge difference. Add compound inflation for the last 13 years – because the list is revealed now – and the damages to the state exchequer get multiplied by three to four times."

"We need to deal with the very law that allows this kind of windfall for the ruling elite. They should not be auctioned, except for those things that lose value with the passage of time (like vehicles). The rest should go to the state, for a respectable display at appropriate places," Hassan says.

Former finance minister Miftah Ismail explains this as yet another reflection of "elite capture". Over the decades, the different rates (15, 20 and 50%) were applied for retention, but all of them benefitted the ruling elite.

"Under-assessment has been another issue. The solution to it all is 'simply plug it'; the law should be enacted to stop individuals from retaining these gifts. Do whatever you want to do with them – retain them for exhibition halls, auction them to the public and give money to the state but stop individual purchases by the state functionaries," he suggests.

But educationist and former caretaker chief minister Hassan Askari Rizvi believes the issue is one of ethics of such buys.

"There should be a cut-off line (price wise) beyond which all gifts should go to the state. No one should be allowed to retain them, or, if one has to, he should pay 100% price," he said.

Journalist and TV host Talat Hussain, who has been calling for the release of data from years prior to 2002, asked whether politicians or bureaucrats alone were the recipients of this state largesse.

"Have army men, judges or chief minister also benefitted? If yes, where is their list?"

Thirdly, he asked, what has been the valuation process. "How much was it rigged? What has been the expertise to evaluate custom-made or non-branded gifts?"

"When a president, prime minister, federal minister or federal secretary receive a gift, they also gave gifts to the other side and these presents are purchased by the state or the relevant ministry," a highly placed source told Dawn on Monday.

While there is a record of most gifts received by state functionaries, there was no record of gifts given by these public office holders in return and how much was spent on those items.

Former PM Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, who had availed Toshakhana gifts, told Geo News that the receiver of the foreign gift became its sole owner and they had the right to sell it onwards after paying the 20 per cent cost, fixed by the Toshakhana.

Speaking to Shahzeb Khanzada, he claimed "these gifts are the property of individuals and not the posts," he added. Abbasi revealed that he had re-gifted several of the items he retained from the Toshakhana to his relatives and friends.

When asked if selling foreign gifts was no crime, why was PTI chief Imran Khan in the dock, Abbasi replied that Khan's "crime" was selling the items before he had paid 20pc of their price to the Toshakhana.