–PML-N leader’s review petition states that Niazi Services Ltd was PTI chief’s asset but he failed to mention it in his election nomination papers
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Hanif Abbasi on Tuesday filed a review petition in the Supreme Court challenging a 2017 decision in which the top court had found Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman PTI Imran Khan to be honest.
Abbasi has made Imran respondent in the review petition.
The petition maintained that the PTI chairman purchased an unnamed property in the name of his former wife Jemima in Bani Gala. Khan admitted that he took a debt from Jemima but did not show it in his nomination papers filed at the election commission.
“Offshore company was Imran Khan’s asset but he never mentioned it too in the nomination papers,” read the petition. “Khan lied in front of the court and therefore, he does not qualify under Article-62 (1)(f) of the Constitution,” it added.
“The court, even during the hearing of his case challenging his disqualification, did not observe his conduct and so, the decision declaring him as ‘sadiq’ and ‘ameen’ should be reviewed.”
Abbasi also insisted that the certificates with regards to PTI’s funding should be held as bogus and the federal government must be asked to take action against the party over foreign funding.
The three-judge SC bench, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar and comprising Justice Umar Ata Bandial and Justice Faisal Arab, December 2017 had found Imran Khan, to be honest, but disqualified PTI’s general secretary Jahangir Tareen. Abbasi had sought the disqualification of Imran and Tareen on various grounds.
In its verdict, the top court had accepted Imran’s stance on the purchase of Banigala land as well as the establishment of his offshore company.
On November 2, 2016, Abbasi had filed the petition, seeking the two PTI leaders’ disqualification over non-disclosure of assets and existence of their offshore companies, as well as receiving foreign funds for their party.
Announcing the verdict in the case, Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar had said the three-judge bench had found that Imran Khan was not liable to declare offshore company, Niazi Services Ltd (NSL), in his 2013 nomination papers as he was not a shareholder or director of the firm.
The court had noted that Imran Khan had declared the London flat through an amnesty scheme under Pakistan’s income tax laws, after which there was no need left to also declare NSL — which had only been set up to buy the flat — as an asset in his income tax returns, statement of assets or annual returns.
On the allegation that Khan had laundered money to buy his Bani Gala property and would not be able to justify the money trail, the court had ruled that it was quite satisfied that the initial purchase price of Rs43.5 million of the Bani Gala property was paid partly by Imran Khan (Rs7.3 million) and partly by Jemima Goldsmith (Rs36.2 million) at the time of its purchase.
The amount was covered by foreign currency remittances made by Imran Khan’s ex-wife, the court had found, which was later returned by Imran Khan in 2003 after he sold his London flat.
On Imran Khan’s ownership of the Bani Gala property, the court had said that Abbasi had no legal standing to make the charge.
The court had stated unequivocally that the Bani Gala property is owned by Imran Khan after it was orally gifted to him by his ex-wife after their divorce. Prior to that, the property had been acquired by Khan for his family and the money provided by his then-wife had been more than refunded by him, the court ruled.
Therefore, the court had said, there was nothing irregular in Khan’s ownership of the property and, in any case, Hanif Abbasi had no grounds to challenge the gift transaction between a husband and wife.
Ruling on Abbasi’s charge that the PTI chief had not declared a flat that he owns on 1-Constitution Avenue in Islamabad in his assets statement, the court had stated that Imran Khan had actually declared his advance payment made to 1-Constitution Avenue Tower in his statement of assets and liabilities filed with his income tax return in the tax year 2014.
He was allotted the flat in the following year, and thereafter declared it in both his assets and liabilities statements filed with his income tax returns for the year, as well as his annual returns order filed with the ECP.
“Therefore, we hold that no misdeclaration of assets was committed by Imran Khan in relation to the said property in his annual return filed with the ECP in the year 2014,” the court had ruled.
