Daily Telegraph London, Sunday

This man is the governor of a province in Pakistan. He lives in a huge mansion surrounded by servants. So why were we paying him £1,000 a month in benefits?
 

By Daniel Foggo and Massoud Ansari in Karachi
(Filed: 12/06/2005)

The two-storey stone mansion that Dr Ishrat-Ul-Ebad Khan lives in as the governor of the Pakistani province of Sindh is surrounded by magnificent lawns and protected by armed guards.

It has two grand entrances, more than a dozen bedrooms, oak floors in the main reception rooms and separate quarters for the staff who see to Dr Khan's every need.

As a senior Pakistani politican, Dr Khan has been photographed beside President Pervez Musharraf, is chauffeured in Mercedes limousines and was inaugurated as governor of his country's second largest province with much pomp almost three years ago.

Yet for almost 10 months while Dr Khan was enjoying the comforts and privileges that go with high office, his family was receiving money from the British benefits system, including income support of about £1,000 a month.

An investigation by The Sunday Telegraph has revealed that British taxpayers also funded the £244-a-week rent on a house in Edgware, north-west London, that Dr Khan keeps as a base for his family in Britain.

When confronted by this newspaper, Dr Khan admitted that since taking up his position in December 2002, he had received benefits to which he was not entitled. But he insisted that he had refunded the overpayment. Neither he nor his family is now claiming any benefits, and they have not done so since October 2003 when Mrs Khan went to join him in Pakistan, he said.

Dr Khan, who trained at Sindh Medical College in Karachi and has also been a housing minister in Pakistan, came to Britain in 1992 as an asylum seeker. He fled after being accused by the then government of involvement in murder and kidnap offences.

Following the acceptance of his asylum claim in 1999, Dr Khan, who is aligned with the pro-Musharraf Mohajir Qaumi Movement (MQM), was entitled to a range of welfare benefits.

From 1997 he and his family lived in a pebble-dashed semi-detached corner house in Edgware, and in May 1999 they began claiming income support, which entitled him to payments, such as housing benefit.

His wife, Shaheena, also received benefits because she had a stress disorder, and extra money was added on to allow Dr Khan, who did not have a job, to care for her full time.

By 2002, however, the political situation in Pakistan had changed markedly, with Gen Musharraf having replaced President Ishaq Khan. In December of that year the doctor was invited by the general to become governor of Sindh, and he was inaugurated on December 27.

Records show, however, that he and his wife continued to receive benefits for 10 months.

When contacted by this newspaper, Mrs Khan, who continues to divide her time between the palace in Pakistan and the house in Edgware, claimed that she had written to notify the authorities that her husband had left the country "a few weeks" after his departure.

She said: "His recall was very sudden and we were not sure how long it would last and whether he would stay or not. I didn't write straight away but within about a month to say he had left."

Without his presence their benefits should have been approximately halved. This did not happen, however because, she said, the authorities did not reply.

She said: "When I got no reply I assumed they were taking their time making a decision and so I continued to cash the cheques as normal. Some months later I finally went into the benefits office and told them he was no longer with me and then they sent us a request for repayment, which we paid."

Benefit office records show that she contacted the authorities in October 2003 and told them that her husband had left Britain on September 28 for a period of four months and that she herself would be leaving on October 22. Benefit officials calculated that small repayments, relating to benefits paid since September 28, were therefore due.

In fact, by September 28, 2003 Dr Khan had been the governor of Sindh for almost nine months, during which time he had performed official duties ranging from inaugurating a national immunisation campaign against polio to visiting Saudi Arabia, where he enjoyed the hospitality of the royal family.

He made trips to London to visit his family during that period, including the week prior to September 28.

Dr Khan said that he had repaid a matter of "a few hundred pounds" to the social security authorities but he was keen to make sure that any money that might still be outstanding was reimbursed.

"Since you have raised this, I will be writing to the social security officials to clarify the situation," he said.

"If anything has been done, even inadvertently, I would very much like to rectify it. But in our opinion we have not tried to misguide or mislead." Three of the Khans' four children still live at the Edgware house and attend full-time education in Britain. Dr Khan said that the house was owned by a friend.

In the meantime, Dr Khan, who earns 35,000 rupees (£350) a month - the average Pakistani earns 25,000 rupees a year - lives in a colonial-era house, located in the heart of the port city. The house sits in a dozen acres and is guarded by the gun-carrying men of the Pakistan frontier constabulary. Packed with art treasures, it has a billiards room and tennis courts.

After he was appointed governor, all former criminal accusations against him were dropped. Now he is responsible for appointing judges and can also pardon convicts.