Gifts belong to recipients, not the state, says Abbasi.

ISLAMABAD -- Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader and former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi claims that recipients were the owners of the gifts presented to them by foreign countries or dignitaries, and not the government.

He stated this while speaking to media outside the Judicial Complex in Islamabad a couple of days after the federal government shared record of Toshakhana, a state depositary, since 2002, making explosive revelations.

Mr Abbasi, who served as prime minister from August 2017 to May 2018, had retained all the gifts he received from foreign countries. The record revealed that Abbasi' wife and sons had received gifts worth millions.

He said there was also his name in the Toshakhana record, adding that the gifts received from foreign countries were deposited with the state depositary but they could be retained by paying a certain...