ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Thursday fixed September 12 for resuming hearing of the disqualification case against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan.
A three-member SC bench, comprising Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, Justice Umar Ata Bandial and Justice Faisal Arab, is hearing a petition filed by Hanif Abbasi, seeking disqualification of PTI chief Imran Khan and Secretary General Jahangir Tareen for non-disclosure of assets, ownership of offshore companies, and PTI being a foreign-funded party. In his plea, Abbasi has contended that Imran Khan violated Income Tax Ordinance (ITO) 1979 by not declaring his offshore company- Niazi Services Limited (NSL)- in his statement of assets and liabilities submitted to the Election Commission of Pakistan.
The petition states that in his declaration of assets for tax year 2014, Imran Khan had willfully concealed his investment of Rs 2.97 million to purchase a luxury apartment at Constitution Avenue’s Grand Hyatt locality in Islamabad, which, he said, was a clear violation of sections 12(2) (f) and 42A, read with section 82 of the Representation of the Peoples Act 1976. Therefore, he said, Imran Khan was liable to be disqualified on this account alone.
On last hearing of the case on August 3, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s senior counsel Muhammad Akram Sheikh had argued that Imran Khan should be disqualified for not declaring a loan that he received from his former wife, Jemima, as an asset. He had kept drawing parallels between the petition and the Panama Paper case, contending that the SC had disqualified Nawaz Sharif as prime minister for not declaring a salary that he could have received from his son’s company in its ruling on the Panama Papers case.
Sheikh had also raised questions about the PTI chief’s statements over the purchase and ownership of his Bani Gala residence. The case was adjourned until September without fixing next date of hearing after the petitioner’s counsel Akram Sheikh had sought adjournment, saying that he had to leave to perform Hajj. Additionally, Justice Faisal Arab, too, went on leave and the chief justice had to travel to Quetta. Before adjourning the case for September, the court had also summoned, for the second time, a copy of Imran Khan’s passport for verification of the ‘non-resident’ status.
Published in Daily Times, September 8th 2017.
