LAHORE: Expert on legal and constitutional matters Babar Sattar has said the Supreme Court verdict in Imran Khan and Jehangir Tareen disqualification case will cause a constitutional balance shift.
Speaking in Geo News programme ‘Aj Shahzeb Khanzada Ke Sath’, he said the recent verdicts are lessening the power of democratic institutions and giving more powers to non-representative institutions.
He termed the disqualification of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf former secretary general Jehangir Tareen and ex-prim minister and Pakistan Muslim League-N President Nawaz Sharif unfortunate.
He regretted that the Supreme Court reasoning for disqualification in Imran Khan and Jehangir Tareen is inconsistent. Leave aside the Nawaz Sharif case, even in Imran and Tareen cases, the court’s reasoning appears to be inconsistent, the legal expert said. On the one hand, the judges say that if the corporate will is taken into account, Jehangir Tareen is actual beneficiary owner of his house in the UK. As he was supposed to bring it on record and he didn’t do so, therefore he’s disqualified for not being sadiq and amen, Babar Sattar said.
On the other hand, the court observed that Imran Khan had established a company only to hold his flat in the UK. As he brought it on record in 2000, the court would not go into details of its ownership issues.
The judgement observed that as Imran Khan was not director and shareholder of the company, therefore it makes no difference that he was a beneficial owner of the flat.
Babar Sattar said what benefit was taken by Tareen by not declaring his house in the UK. His wealth was declared here, and he sent the funds through banks, legal channel. As the money was sent abroad after payment of taxes, therefore, there was no need to bring on record the house bought with the said money, he added.
Speaking in the programme, Pakistan Muslim League-N leader and State Minister for Interior Talal Chaudhry, speaking in the programme, said a thought was creeping up in some quarters that the parliament should have no majority party, and nothing should have majority support. He said these quarters did not want any leader, parliament should be leaderless, political parties should be leaderless, because a genuine leader didn’t pay heed to any commands on formation of internal security policy, foreign policy and economic issues, and makes all decisions in accordance with the wishes of people.
Akbar S. Babar, a founding member of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, who is no longer associated with it, replying to a question by Shahzeb Khanzada, declared the SC verdict in Imran Khan and Jehangir Tareen disqualification case good for his cause. He said the PTI had been challenging the Pakistan Election Commission (ECP) jurisdiction to look into party’s financial matters and funding issues. The SC verdict, in fact, validated the ECP jurisdiction that it could investigate the accounts of any political party.
Akbar Babar said that the SC verdict disqualifying Jehangir Tareen had, in fact, vindicated Justice (retd) Wajihuddin Ahmad. Due to corruption, Justice Wajih had given a decision against Jehangir Tareen.
The decision was also given against Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervaiz Khattak, Aleem Khan and another person from Karachi. Justice Wajih had expelled them from the party for corruption. And Imran Khan, instead of implementing the tribunal decision, expelled Justice Wajih from the party. But now, he added, the SC verdict against Tareen had proved that Justice Wajih decision was right.