The petition against Imran and Tareen seeks disqualification of the two for non-disclosure of their assets and ownership of offshore companies

A three-member bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice Saqib Nasir, will hear the disqualification case against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan and Secretary-General Jehangir Tareen today.

The petition, filed by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader Hanif Abbasi, seeks, disqualification of the two for non-disclosure of their assets and ownership of offshore companies

The CJP in yesterday's hearing said that some of the details in the documents provided by Tareen's counsel contradict each other. "It seems as if the documents are fake."

He said that the "lease agreement do not show entire facts. You are using the land for farming. Do you want it to be investigated through the appropriate forum?"

In reply, Tareen?s legal counsel Sikandar Bashir Mohmand pleaded: "Please don?t say that they are fake documents. If Tareen is disqualified under Article 62 1(f) of the Constitution then its mark will stay forever."

The chief justice also said that Tareen acquired the agricultural land under lease but he earns income from it. Moreover, Tareen did not reveal aggregated agricultural income to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

Mohmand said that the ECP had asked for information regarding proprietary land only. ?Tareen has hidden nothing in the documents submitted to the court.?

Jahangir Tareen seems to have submitted fake documents, remarks CJP

Tareen did not reveal aggregate agricultural income to Election Commission of Pakistan

To this, the CJP questioned Baksh and asked: ?What should a person do if he does not own agricultural land but earns more than Rs10 billion on that land through lease? Should the person not share that information with ECP?"

?Our stance is that leased land?s owner should pay the tax.?

The CJP termed the explanation as not satisfactory and said, ?Even though Tareen had the lease of the land but the income was not declared.?

The law states that a person who earns money on agricultural land must pay taxes. Tareen should have paid five percent tax on the income earned from the land, the CJP added.

?The question in front of the court is of integrity and integrity can be gauged through actions,? remarked the CJP, adding Tareen did not declare his entire means of income to the court.

Tareen?s lawyer added that the court should let an appropriate forum give a verdict on the tax issues first.

Hanif Abbasi?s lawyer, Akram Sheikh, said that Tareen?s bad intentions can be seen from the fact that he hasn?t revealed documents of yield per acre or finance department. He has laundered money through the lease agreement, the lawyer added.  

Supreme Court notes discrepancies in Imran?s additional documents

Imran?s counsel requests court for chance to provide new documents

Hearing the petition against Imran, the bench noted discrepancies in the additional documents submitted by pertaining to his money trail.

The bench said even the additional documents have loopholes as they do not show if £100,000 were in the account of Niazi Services Limited for legal fees.

Responding to questions being raised on £100,000, Imran?s counsel, Advocate Naeem Bukhari, said the amount was earned abroad, therefore, no tax would have been levied on it.

However, speaking about the non-disclosure of the amount, Bukhari requested the court to be granted a chance to provide a new set of documents.

Questions were raised on £100,000 as details submitted by Imran earlier showed the balance of Niazi Services Limited account to be zero. However, later, the amount was shown in the account.

The previous documents showed that £100,000, which were in the account were spent on legal matters, therefore, Imran did not have any money to show regarding the bank details of Niazi Services Limited.