ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court will start hearing a petition seeking the dismissal of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan and PTI Secretary General Jahangir Khan Tareen from today.
The petition, filed by PML-N’s Hanif Abassi, accuses the two PTI leaders for not declaring their assets to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and seeks to unseat them based on alleged violations of the lncome Tax Ordinance 1979 and Peoples Act 1974. Amidst a heightened political backdrop, a three-member bench comprising of Chief Justice Saqib Nasir, Justice Umar Ata Bindial and Justice Faisal Arab will begin hearing the petition from today. Abbasi’s petition was accepted by the apex court in November last year by former Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali. Abbasi, through his counsel Muhammad Akram Sheikh, seeks the PTI leaders’ disqualification under charges of false declaration before the ECP, non-disclosure of assets in offshore companies, and for being a foreign-funded party. Abbasi’s petition argues that by failing to disclose the existence of ‘Niazi Services Limited’ – an off-shore company allegedly owned by the PTI chairman – to the ECP, Khan stands in violation of the Income Tax Ordinance of 1979. Meanwhile, PTI Chairman Imran Khan has requested the Supreme Court to dismiss Abbasi’s petition. PTI leader’s counsel Naeem Bukhari in his three-page reply stated that Abbasi was trying to show his loyalty to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif whose legality is still to be established by a joint investigation team. “The petitioner is himself an accused in the ephedrine case and he filed the petition against Imran Khan to counter his petition against Sharif family in the Panamagate case.”
