By Special Correspondent
ISLAMABAD: Crown prince of Saudi Arabia Muhammad Bin Salman, one of the greates leaders of Muslim World, must be feeling uneasy as Pakistan is mulling to auction precious gifts he gave to Pakistani leaders.
Government of Prime Minister Imran Khan is all set to auction precious gifts worth millions of rupees that Prime Minister, President, Bureaucrats and politicians received during foreign trips.
Government didn’t give exact date of auction of these precious gifts. However, it will be first time in history of Pakistan that government will be auctioning the gifts.
Official sources said, Prime Minister Iran Khan has been depositing all he gifts he received during foreign trips. President Arif Alvi and Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Quraishi has been following the suit.
In February last year, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi deposited gifts worth millions of rupees received from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman in the Toshakhana (gift depository).
FO documents dated January 9 and 10 state that the gifts were given to the foreign minister during Prime Minster Imran Khan’s visit on Sept 19, 2018.
According to the documents Qureshi had received a Rolex watch, a gold pen embedded with gems, a pair of gold cuff links, a gold-chain rosary (tasbeeh) inlaid with precious gems, and a gold ring.
The total value of the gifts, assessed by an approved appraiser, amounts to Rs6.35 million. All of these precious gifts are among the list of those putting up for auction soon.
Since coming into power, Prime Minister Imran Khan launched an austerity drive. As a part of this drive, Pakistan put under the hammer 102 luxury vehicles, including seven bullet-proof cars used by the Prime Minister House on Monday.
Prime Minister Imran Khan had announced the auctioning of the luxury vehicles as part of his austerity drive of jettisoning extra financial burden on the national exchequer.
The vehicles included eight BMWs, 28 Mercedes cars, 40 Toyotas, five Mitsubishis, two Land Cruisers, and two jeeps. The models of the vehicles ranged from 1994 to 2016.
The public response was overwhelming: Within the first few hours of the auction Majority of vehicles were sold.
During the auction, four bullet-proof Mercedes jeeps were auctioned for the prices ranging between PKR9.38 million ($75,779), and PKR14.5 million. “Some vehicles could not be auctioned yet due to high duty and taxes levied on them. However, duties and taxes of such vehicles will be reviewed,” said Major Asif, administrator of the PM House.
And now, precious gifts are going to be auctioned soon.
Gifts are routinely exchanged between heads of states or officers holding constitutional positions on the eve of a state visit. According to Toshakhana rules, these gifts remain the property of the state unless sold at an open auction. If the original recipient wants to retain the present, they have to pay a fee determined by the Cabinet Division.
According to a news report from 2010, the then President Asif Ali Zardari is alleged to have set a record within a year of assuming office by taking one-third of all expensive gifts presented to all former presidents and prime ministers. Of the gifts of the value of Rs160 million, Zardari reportedly took away items of Rs62 million value during the first year of his presidency.
In the past, leaders have paid as little as 15 per cent of the assessed value of a gift. A list presented to the Senate Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat in 20019 had revealed that only 447 of the 3,486 gifts received by state representatives (from presidents down to deputy secretaries) during foreign visits were deposited in the gift depository. The rest were retained by the receivers after paying a meagre amount or free of cost.
According to sources, Shaukat Aziz retained hundreds of gifts with wrong assessment of market value. They said the list showed that the former prime minister had retained a number of precious jewel-studded wrist watches by showing their market price as just a few thousands of rupees.
