No one can be unseated for false declaration of party funds: SC

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday observed that nobody could be unseated from the membership of parliament for filing a false declaration regarding his party funds.

A three-member Supreme Court bench, headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar and comprising Justice Umar Ata Bandial and Justice Faisal Arab, was hearing a petition filed by PML-N’s Hanif Abbasi seeking the disqualification of PTI Chairman Imran Khan and Secretary General Jahangir Tareen for non-disclosure of assets, ownership of offshore companies, and PTI being a foreign-aided party.

Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar observed that under the Political Parties Act, no one could be disqualified for filing a fake certificate regarding the party funds.Similarly, he said that in the Representation of People Act, nothing is mentioned regarding the consequence of filing a false declaration of party assets.

The Chief Justice further said that under the law, no one can be disqualified on receiving prohibited foreign funding; however, the prohibited fund can be confiscated.Where it is mentioned in the law that punishment for filing false declaration regarding the party’s funds is disqualification, the Chief Justice questioned.

Muhammad Akram Sheikh, counsel for the petitioner Hanif Abbasi, contended the PTI received majority of funds through prohibited foreign sources.The Chief Justice said that neither the Representation of People Act, nor the Political Parties Act, mentions that a person must be disqualified for submitting a fake certificate.

The learned counsel for the petitioner, however, contended that the PTI had received funds exceeding one million dollars from PTI USA chapter, which is against the USA’s Foreign Agent Registration Act (Fara). The Chief Justice said that American law is not applicable in Pakistan. The court observed that the government has the authority to take action on false declaration of assets by a party.

Akram Sheikh contended that since the PTI has not disclosed the name of donors, the party must be disqualified under articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution. He contended that PTI submitted forged documents to the apex court that shows foreign remittances collected from dual nationals or people of Pakistani origin, but hiding the donations from allegedly prohibited sources.

“I am not asking the court to ban the PTI or confiscate its funds through the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) but the respondent be declared dishonest for issuing a bogus certificate to the ECP, saying the party did not receive any funds from prohibited sources,” Akram Sheikh submitted.

Anwar Mansoor Khan, representing the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), contended his client Imran Khan had no information about the funds sent to Pakistan by PTI USA LLC from prohibited sources. He recalled that Imran Khan had already issued instruction to the foreign agents not to collect any donations which violate law.

The learned counsel, while elaborating his point, submitted that as the information on the matter had come to light for the first time and during the course of the instant proceedings, the PTI was going to take action against those agents.

Diverting the attention of the court towards the PTI reply, Akram Shekh informed the court that the PTI had evasively denied the allegation of prohibited sources of funding, but it never claimed that it did not collect any donation from corporations and foreigners. Rather, it had been stated that the funds that were remitted to the PTI Pakistan, from 2010 to-date, did not contain any prohibited funding, he said.

The learned counsel claimed that the list of donors submitted by the PTI in three volumes was false as these lists did not exist on the US Foreign Agents Registration Authority (Fara) website.

“This shows that the provided lists were their own creation to fill the gaps that had been highlighted,” Akram Sheikh contendedHe maintained that the total amount shown remitted to the PTI Pakistan from PTI USA LLC (Texas) in Fara’s records between Feb 2010 and June 2013 could not be reconciled with the lists provided for the same period to the apex court.

Akram Sheikh contended that a total of 113 entries were copied and pasted twice to make up for the donations that came from prohibited sources.Similarly, the learned counsel alleged the party had showed false accounts for the year 2012-13, which contained repeated entries of donors as well as ghost entries in clear violation of rules of Fara.

Meanwhile, the court asked Anwar Mansoor Khan that as his client had filed an affidavit in the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) saying that he had not received funds from prohibited source, hence it would be better that the learned counsel should download the documents from the website of FARA and then compare it with the documents, he had submitted before the court earlier and then file a report.Later, the court adjourned the hearing until today (Wednesday) wherein, Muhammad Akram Sheikh will continue his arguments in rebuttal.