ISLAMABAD, May 8: “Non disclosure of assets is tantamount to the disqualification of a Member National Assembly (MNA),” observed Chief Justice Pakistan (CJP) Justice Saqib Nisar on Monday.
A three-member bench of the top court, headed by the CJP, was hearing a Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Hanif Abbasi’s petition seeking disqualification of PTI’s Imran Khan and Jahangir Tareen as members of the National Assembly on the basis of concealment of their sources of income.
Justice Nisar, however, made it clear that the Supreme Court (SC) cannot disqualify any MNA on the basis of presumptions.
The petitioner’s counsel, Akram Sheikh, stressed that Chairman Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) did not provide the money trail regarding the transfer of cash from his ex-wife Jemima Khan for purchasing the land measuring over 300 kanals (Bani Gala property) in 2003.
According to Abbasi’s counsel, four different versions on the purchase of Bani Gala land had been presented in the case so far, and insisted “this is nothing, but money laundering.” When Imran Khan sold his Landon flat in 2003, “then why did he keep his offshore company, namely Niazi Service, alive?”, he questioned. In 2016, Imran Khan admitted he formed an offshore company, during his cricketing years in London, in 1983. According to the United Kingdom’s (UK) official land registry records, Imran’s property – a flat in South Kensington was registered in the name of ‘Niazi Services Limited’ of Jersey, Channel Island, on May 3, 1984. The flat was sold in March 2003 for £715,000. – Agencies
