Imran denies money laundering, tax evasion claims

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Tuesday submitted a reply in the Supreme Court of Pakistan in a petition seeking his disqualification.

Earlier, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Hanif Abbasi had filed the petition, accusing Imran Khan and PTI leader Jahangir Tareen of owning offshore companies and evading taxes.

In his reply, Khan said that the London flat had been purchased for £1,17,000 from foreign income, while the only asset of Niazi Service Limited (NSL) Company had been that London flat.

He said that Bani Gala land had been bought for Rs 430 million on lease in 2002. He stated that his former wife Jemima had paid for the Bani Gala land due to delay in sale of London flat which was sold for £7,15,000.

PTI chief termed the accusations against him as baseless and requested the court to dismiss the petition. The PTI chief criticised the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) for investigating his taxes after 13 years. “I have been paying all my taxes for three decades now. I have never lied about the property I own,” he said.

A three-member bench of the apex court, headed by Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali, has been hearing the petition. At the previous hearing, both respondents had sought more time to submit replies before the court. The court had accepted the requests and granted two weeks time for submission of replies and adjourned the hearing of the case.

In his petition, Abbasi stated that Imran Khan had violated the Income Tax Ordinance (ITO) 1979 by not declaring his offshore company in a statement of assets and liabilities submitted to the Election Commission of Pakistan, while filing his nomination papers for contesting different general elections, including that of 2013.

The petition said the NSL was alive till October 2015, but Imran Khan had failed to disclose his ownership interest in the company and later publicly admitted that he had incorporated the offshore company to avoid UK taxes.