ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan submitted more documents to the Supreme Court on Monday in connection with the disqualification petition against him and maintained that his money trail of “£672,000” was now before the court in its “entirety”.
A three-judge bench of the apex court, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar, resumed the hearing of Pakistan Muslim League’s Nawaz (PML-N) leader Hanif Abbasi’s plea seeking Imran’s disqualification for not disclosing the existence of his offshore assets and firms.
At a previous hearing, the petitioner’s counsel, Akram Sheikh, argued that Imran was liable to declare his offshore company in his 2002 nomination papers.
He submitted that Niazi Service Limited (NSL), being an asset, was also liable to be declared as such. Moreover, just as Imran has admitted to being the owner of the flat held by NSL, and has declared the same as such in his nomination form, the funds in the account of NSL being a conversion of the flat itself and being used for the benefit and upon instruction of [Imran], was also his asset, and were required to be declared.
Sheikh further submitted that Imran’s claim that the use of the term “benami” in the power of attorney by Jemima Khan was an error is contrary to the record.
The wording of the power of attorney is self-explanatory, wherein two separate assertions have been made by Jemima with regard to the land. Firstly, “That the land… was purchased by Imran Khan Niazi” and secondly, “The land was transferred in my name through mutation… by my ex-husband Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi ‘as a benami transaction’ after the divorce between me and Imran Khan.”
Earlier, Imran’s attorney Naeem Bukhari, while submitting a supplementary statement, claimed that he had not changed his position regarding Bani Gala land at any stage of the proceedings.
According to the statement, a gift of Rs6.5 million and a final payment of Rs800,000 for the land was made by Jemima Khan via remittances to Rashid Khan during April 2002 and January 2003.
“Any payments made by Rashid Khan in anticipation of remittances from Jemima Khan were settled between him and her,” claimed the statement.
It was submitted that in his tax returns for the year ending June 30, 2002, the PTI chief had accounted for the Rs6.5 million amount as gift. It is further submitted that the London apartment was disposed of on April 14, 2003; that there was no foreign asset to be declared before the Election Commission of Pakistan or the Federal Board of Revenue as the cut-off date for the respective statements was June 30, 2003; and that the Bani Gala land was “in fact and law” the property of Khan’s then-spouse and was declared as such.
