Hanif Abbasi requests SC to disqualify

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on Tuesday requested the Supreme Court (SC) to disqualify Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan for not being honest by concealing his London property and offshore company in his nomination papers for the 1997 general elections.

Muhammad Hanif Abbasi, PML-N leader, filed a review petition with the Supreme Court, challenging the judgment delivered last year in December by a three-member bench headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, declaring PTI chief Imran Khan as honest but disqualified his Secretary General Jehangir Tareen on various grounds.

Hanif Abbasi contended that PTI chief Imran Khan had categorically admitted that he did not declare his ownership of the London flat, nor the Niazi Services Limited (NSL), until he availed himself of the amnesty scheme in 2000; therefore, it logically followed that the said assets were not declared in the nomination forms filed by respondent Imran Khan in 1997.

Imran Khan therefore, is not a righteous in terms of Section 99(f) of Representation of People's Act, 1976 and Article 62(1) (f) of the Constitution and should be disqualified from the membership of Parliament”, Hanif Abbasi contended.

The petitioner recalled that the conclusion drawn by this court in paragraph 59 of the impugned judgment, wherein this court while recording the Respondent No. 1's admission of non-declaration of London flat until 2000, concluded (without examining the wealth tax forms of the Respondent No. 1 for the relevant period) that consequentially, the respondent (Imran Khan) was a defaulter under the Wealth Tax Act, 1963.

Hanif Abbasi submitted that upon being probed as to why the transfer was made in the name of Jemima Khan when it was the Respondent No. 1 (Imran Khan) who was evidently purchasing the land, the Respondent No. 1, vide a subsequent affidavit contained in CMA No 3657/2017 asserted that he purchased the land for the benefit for Jemima Khan.

“Alternatively, even if Mr Khan's aforementioned narrative is to be believed, once again fall within the mischief of section 12(2)(f) of the Representation of People's Act, 1976, and he is not righteous in terms of Sec 99(f) of Representation of People's Act, 1976 and Article 62(1) (f) of the Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan,” Hanif Abbasi contended.

The petitioner submitted that in one of the latest supplementary concise statements numbered CMA No 6512/2017, Mr Khan clearly denied that Jemima Khan was his benamidar, wherein he claimed in para 9, "The use of word 'Benami' in the Power of Attorney, is a mis-description contrary to the factum of ownership,[notwithstanding] the gift by Respondent No. 1, the entire sale price having been remitted by Ms Jemima Khan and all mutations in the revenue record being in her name."

Hanif Abbasi pointed out that interestingly, at a later point in CMA No. 6512/2017, while claiming that the term "benami" used in Jemima Khan's Power of Attorney is nothing but a miss-description, it is stated that "the underlying intent of that document (the Power of Attorney) was to return the property after divorce to Respondent No. 1 which Jemima Khan did not wish to retain. “The question thus arises if Jemima Khan purchased the property for her ownself, from where the question of return of the property to Imran Khan arises”, Abbasi questioned