Ex-Pakistani PM Gilani ordered to return necklace donated by Turkey’s first lady after 2010 flood

ISTANBUL

Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has issued a notice to the country’s former Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani to return a necklace donated by the Turkish president’s wife after the 2010 floods in the country, Pakistan Today reported on its website on June 21. 

Emine Erdoğan, who is Turkey’s current first lady, donated a necklace in 2010 when her husband Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was still prime minister, for flood-stricken people in Pakistan. The necklace was later reported to have disappeared. 

Pakistani Interior Minister Chaurdhry Nisar Ali Khan ordered the FIA to investigate the matter, and during the probe Gilani admitted that he was holding the necklace. 

In its notice, FIA gave Gilani three days to return the necklace that Erdoğan had donated, or face a legal case.

The 2010 flood disaster in Pakistan left around 20 percent of the country’s land covered with water, killing around 2,000 people and directly affecting 20 million others. 

According to Pakistan Today, a local report in the Pakistani media claimed that Gilani had admitted to possessing the expensive necklace.

“The necklace belongs to my sister and is with me,” Gilani reportedly said, adding that he had close ties with the Erdoğan family and Emine Erdoğan was “like a sister to him.”

Gilani said that after the necklace was donated by Turkey’s first lady he planned a visit to a flood-relief camp in Pakistan’s Sindh province, where a couple was getting married. Gilani said he had intended to give the necklace, which has a market price estimated at 200,000 Pakistani rupees, as a wedding gift to the bride.

However, he was surprised to be greeted by eight girls who were to be married that day, so he decided to keep the necklace himself and instead gift 200,000 rupees to each of the eight couples.