Jehangir Tareen’s disqualification case hearing in SC
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ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Tuesday adjourned hearing of a case regarding offshore companies of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) General Secretary Jehangir Tareen till Wednesday.
A three-member SC bench headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar and comprising Justice Umar AtaBandial and Justice Faisal Arab heard the case filed by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Hanif Abbasi seeking disqualification of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan and the party's secretary general Jahangir Tareen over non-disclosure of assets, existence of offshore companies as well as the PTI being a foreign-aided party.
The court noted that the money trail submitted by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan regarding a sum of nearly 100,000 pounds was inconsistent.
A day before, Imran Khan had submitted additional documents before the apex court, seeking to provide a money trail of nearly 100,000 pounds that the SC had raised questions over.
The chief justice remarked that the record of the sum is being submitted before the court in pieces and is inconsistent. He also noted that Imran had not yet submitted any record before the court to help determine whether or not the amount had been spent on legal fees.
Justice Umar Ata Bandial remarked that no record had been provided regarding 27,000 pounds out of the total sum.
Imran's counsel, Advocate Naeem Bukhari, told the court that on May 26, 2003, the PTI chief's former wife, Jemima Khan, had transferred 93,000 pounds to Imran for the purchase of the Bani Gala property.
He added that the amount was received by Imran in pieces; he first received 40,000 pounds and then 42,000 pounds.
The court ordered the petitioner Hanif Abbasi to file his response before the bench.
Advocate Sikandar Mohmand counsel for Jahangir Tareen told the bench that his client had submitted all the records pertaining to 18,566 acres of land which Tareen acquired through a lease.
The bench asked Sikander Mohmand that his client has yet to submit ‘khusrabandi’ and ‘malia’ records which the bench had sought during a hearing on Oct 5 along with other relevant revenue records showing how much money Tareen had paid to the lessor to get lease of 18,566 acres of land in 2010 as well as evidence proving that he had earned around Rs1.6 billion agriculture income from the said land.
Justice Umer Ata Bandial remarked that Tareen did not submit details of tax on land. The lawyer told the court that records of the tax paid by Tareen on water and electricity have been furnished before the court. He maintained that the owner of the land and not his client was liable to pay taxes on the land.
The Chief Justice observed that as the payment was made through cross cheque, as there any other evidence of payment to the land owner.
Upon this the counsel replied that the land owners did not want the issue of lease be placed on record so the payment was made through cross cheque.
The CJP question: “AS the land owners have entered into a contract with your client for leasing out their land and they are also receiving payments against the lease then why they are hesitating in registering them with relevant authorities.”
The CJP asked the counsel to prove though any sort of documents that Jahangir Tareen was farming on leased land. “Whether you want we should call the revenue officer of the area or order constitution of a commission to look into the practice of lease in the area,” he added.
The CJP also expressed his astonishment over payments through cross-cheque to the land owners, saying that usually no one make payments through cross cheque.
