Court orders to unfreeze accounts of Shaukat Khanum trust, Namal University

An anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Rawalpindi on Monday directed the authorities concerned to unfreeze the bank accounts of the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Trust (SKMT) and Namal University.

The order was issued by Judge Amjad Hussain Shah during the hearing of a case related to the November 26 protests last year.

Aleema Khan — sister of incarcerated PTI founder Imran Khan — is one of the accused nominated in the case.

Both SKMT, registered under Pakistan’s Societies Registration Act of 1860, and Namal University were founded by Imran Khan. Their accounts appear to have been frozen by mistake after an arrest warrant was issued for Aleema.

Aleema had repeatedly failed to appear before the court, leading to several arrest warrants.

In an October 24 hearing, the judge also ordered authorities to block her national identity card and passport and freeze all her personal bank accounts.

At Monday’s hearing, the court reviewed Aleema’s request seeking restoration of the frozen accounts. Representatives of SKMT also appeared and argued that the charity’s accounts should not have been affected.

Prosecutor Zaheer Shah told the court that the prosecution never asked for SKMT’s or Namal University’s accounts to be frozen, saying no written or verbal request was made. He added that no court directive specifically targeted the two institutions.

He explained that confusion arose from an order sent to the State Bank of Pakistan that referenced Aleema’s identity card number. He noted that the prosecution did not oppose restoring the accounts of the two organisations but insisted that Aleema’s personal and business accounts should stay frozen.

After hearing all sides, the judge instructed authorities to unfreeze the accounts of SKMT and Namal University while maintaining the freeze on Aleema’s individual accounts.