Govt challenges LHC orders to public Toshakhana record

LAHORE: The federal government on Monday challenged the Lahore High Court (LHC) orders to make the complete record of Toshakhana gifts received by public office holders from 1990 to 2001 public, ARY News reported.

On March 22, a single bench of LHC ordered the government to make the complete record of Toshakhana gifts from 1990 to 2001 public.

The federal government challenged the orders through the additional attorney general. A two-member bench of Justice Shahid Bilal Hasan and Justice Raza Qureshi will hear the plea.

Established in 1974, the Toshakhana is a department under the administrative control of the Cabinet Division and stores precious gifts given to rulers, parliamentarians, bureaucrats, and officials by heads of other governments and states and foreign dignitaries.

On March 12, the federal government declassified the Toshakhana records and uploaded the 466-page data from 2002 to 2023 on the Cabinet Division’s website.

Those who acquired gifts from Toshakhana include former presidents, prime ministers, ministers and government officers.

The names that appeared in the publicised Toshakhan records included Pervez Musharraf, Shaukat Aziz, Yousaf Raza Gillani, Nawaz Sharif, Imran Khan, Arif Alvi and Shehbaz Sharif.

he Toshakhana controversy caught media attention after former prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan was accused of hiding details of the gifts he received during his tenure in the government.

Last year in June, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had constituted a ministerial committee to redesign the Toshakhana policy.