ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court will start hearing a p
etition seek
ing the dismissal of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan and PTI Secretary General Jahangir Khan Tareen from today.
The p
etition, filed by PML-N’s Hanif Abassi, accuses the two PTI leaders for not declar
ing 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 heigh
tened political backdrop, a three-member bench comprising of Chief Justice Saqib Nasir, Justice Umar Ata Bindial and Justice Faisal Arab will begin hear
ing the p
etition from today. Abbasi’s p
etition 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 p
etition 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 p
etition. PTI leader’s counsel Naeem Bukhari in his three-page reply stated that Ab
basi was trying to show his loyalty to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif whose legality is still to be established by a joint inves
tigation team. “The p
etitioner is himself an accused in the ephedrine case and he filed the p
etition against Imran Khan to counter his p
etition against Sharif family in the Panamagate case.”