Hanif submits reply in Imran, Tareen disqualification case

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court was informed on Tuesday that in the cases of PTI Chairman Imran Khan and General Secretary Jehangir Tareen their interest in the trust property was proprietary in nature that could be constituted an asset.
In pursuance of the court order, Akram Sheikh, counsel for petitioner Hanif Abbasi, filed submissions regarding the nature of a beneficial interest in trust relations. A three-member bench headed by Chief Justice Saqib Nisar had reserved the judgment on November 14 on the petitions filed by the PML-N leader, seeking disqualification of Imran and Tareen for non-disclosure of their assets, ownership of offshore companies, and for PTI being a foreign-aided party.
The court had asked the counsels for both the parties to submit their written formulations within a week.
Akram Sheikh cited definitions mentioned in Black Law Dictionary and also quoted Pearce, Pettit, Keeton, Hudson and Pant regarding the nature of a beneficial interest in trust relations.
Quoting Pearce and Hudson, he contended that a trust can be a “bare trust” where a trustee holds the property in trust for a single beneficiary, adding that the trustee, in fact acts under the instructions of the beneficiary. Unlike, a bare trust which has a single beneficiary there can also be a “fixed trust” for more than one beneficiary, he quoted Pearce, adding that in both these kinds of trusts, the beneficiary has a definite identifiable, equitable interest in some property.