Islamabad (October 11, 2017): A member of the full bench hearing disqualification petition against Jahangir Tareen has observed that Tareen did not declare his complete income and sources of income.
A three members bench headed by Justice Mian Saqib Nisar heard the petition filed by PML-N leader Hanif Abbasi seeking disqualification of Pakistan Tahreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Secretary General Jahangir Tareen as member of National Assembly.
The bench again raised question in discrepancy in Tareen income declared in nomination papers and show in FBR tax returns.
During the course of hearing, Tareen’s counsel Sikandar Bashir Mohmand argued that there was confusion in Punjab Agriculture Tax.
He added that the land owner also paid the agri tax on a leased out land so how a person farming on the leased out land would pay agri tax.
He added that double agriculture tax on same land was not paid.
He further argued that in the nomination papers there was no column for declaring land acquired on lease. Upon this the chief justice remarked that they were trying to comprehend the law from different angle.
The CJP observed that the agriculture income also include the income of received from a leaded out land.
He added that landowner pay tax only on the income received from the lease of the land not on the crops grown on the land.
Mohmand said that Tareen had declared all his assets.
He argued that the bench was conducting a tax audit of his client, saying that the petitioner wants to waste time and should be told to take the case to the Federal Board of Revenue.
Justice Umar Ata Bandiyal remarked that they were conducting disqualification proceedings at the core of which is the issue of misdeclarations in election nomination forms.
The court adjourned further hearing till tomorrow.
At the last hearing on Tuesday, Tareen’s counsel failed to submit the lease record of agriculture land owned by the leader, citing a shortage of time as the reason.
He informed the bench that 18,500 acres were acquired by his client in 2010 on a lease. The counsel further said Tareen grows sugar, mangos, and cotton on his farms and then set up a sugar mill in 2002.
The chief justice remarked that the lease agreements are not registered and failed to mention where and how much the land in question is.
“You need to satisfy us that the person from whom land was taken on lease was the owner of the land. We want to see the record of the revenue department first, as only that will tell the situation on the ground,” the chief justice observed.
Justice Bandial had observed that suspicion is arising that the land may have been procured in someone else’s name.
At an earlier hearing on October 5, the bench, while observing discrepancies in Tareen’s assets, had sought the record of the 18,564 acres of land.
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