Islamabad (July 11, 217): Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Saqib Nisar on Tuesday expressed anger over failure of PTI Chief Imran Khan to submit reply in response to Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) stance in Imran disqualification case.
A three-member bench of the apex court heard the petition filed by PML-N leader Hanif Abbasi for disqualification of Imran Khan.
Click Play Button to Watch this Video
During the course of hearing, the ECP agreed to form a commission investigating whether the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) acquired foreign funding from prohibited sources.
There are three parties in the case ─ the PTI, Abbasi, and the ECP. Earlier, the PTI and Abbasi both had consented to formation of a commission to investigate whether the party had acquired funds from prohibited sources.
ECP counsel Ibrahim Satti informed that court that the body had no objection to the formation of a commission to probe the PTI’s funds, and that it would cooperate if the SC chose to form one.
Satti also said that this was the first time a political party’s foreign funding was being investigated, adding that political parties do not even feel the need to submit information relating to domestic funding.
However, the ECP can act against a party if it is notified that the party has submitted incorrect information to it, Satti said. The party involved in such fraud can be “banned or stopped from working,” Satti said.
Abbasi’s counsel Akram Sheikh said that Imran Khan had not submitted reply to the application based on his speech in Parliament and TV interviews.
The CJP said that there were some vacuum that needed to be filled. The CJP said that they did not want the hearing is affected due to any vacuum.
The CJP expressed anger over PTI chief’s failure to submit reply to ECP’s contentions in the case. Upon this one of the PTI chief counsel Faisal Chaudhry apologized to the court for the delay.
Upon inquiry of CJP, Naeem Bukhari told the court that Imran’s counsel Anwar Mansoor Khan was abroad till August 15, 2017.
To this, the CJP asked: “So the court should adjourn hearing of the case for fine week?.” He remarked that the PTI should have engaged another lawyer.
He questioned that as to how property was purchased at 117,000 pounds in UK. “If Imran earned the money by playing cricket then you can obtain certificate from the companies,” the CJP remarked.
In the previous hearing of the same case, Akram Sheikh, the petitioner’s counsel, had stirred up a hornets’ nest when he claimed that the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) had received $3.5 million from February 2010 to date from 178 multinational corporations (MNC) and ghost donors. He had further claimed that a number of such organisations were Indian.
Related News:
http://abbtakk.tv/en/qureshi-meets-shah-as-opposition-mulls-over-joint-strategy-on-jit-report/
