LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Monday ordered the records of Toshakhana from 1947 to 2001 to be submitted, following the federal government’s plea to challenge a single bench’s orders.
The orders pertained to making the complete record of Toshakhana gifts received by public office holders from 1990 to 2001 public.
توشہ خانہ میں جس جس نے قوم کو چونہ لگایا! اب بچ نہی پائے گا!! pic.twitter.com/3W9uVgZ67I
— M Azhar Siddique (@AzharSiddique) April 10, 2023
This came in response to government’s move, executed by the additional attorney general (AAG) earlier today who filed an intra-court appeal in the LHC against the single bench’s order led by Justice Asim Hafeez.
During the course of hearing today, the court asked the AAG about the grounds for the government’s plea. The lawyer informed the court that the bench had ordered the names of individuals who gave the gifts to be made public.
The AAG further stated that the government had uploaded all the details on the official website but wanted relief to the extent of revealing the names. However, the names of those who gave the gifts weren’t made public to avoid destroying foreign relations.
Justice Qureshi asked whether those people were declaring what they had been gifted or not, to which Justice Bilal remarked that they were bound to declare it if anyone gave them a gift.
The AAG maintained that if anyone was representing a state, they were supposed to declare the gift. He also clarified that the government wasn’t trying to hide the records, but the records before 2002 were not computerised and verified.
