ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court of Pakistan was informed on Thursday that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan had made a false declaration by not disclosing to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) the funds in the account of Niazi Services Limited (NSL), beneficially owned by him as an asset in his declaration as on June 30, 2003, and subsequently.
This was stated by PML-N leader Hanif Abbassi in a reply he filed in response to an application filed by Naeem Bukhari, counsel for Imran Khan, in the Supreme Court of Pakistan in Imran Khan disqualification’s case.
Hanif Abassi filed the reply through his senior counsel Muhammad Akram Sheikh contending that Imran Khan in his letter on April 18, 2003, addressed to Barclay Bank Private Limited, instructed the bank to retain a sum of 100,000 pounds for the reasons best known to him.
He said Imran Khan had not shown that there was any compulsion on him from any side. “If Khan had allocated 100,000 pounds to meet certain contingencies and the same had been retained for that purpose and utilised across a period of time, it does not mean that the 100,000 pounds had ceased to be an asset of Khan,” Akram Sheikh said.
He contended that the flat had been declared to be an asset of Khan in the nomination papers filed before the ECP for the year ending on June 30, 2002. “Once the flat, which was an asset of Khan, was sold, its proceeds also continued to be an asset of which Khan was the beneficial owner in the same manner that he had been owner of the asset in its previous shape, ie an item of immovable property,” Sheikh said.
He stated that the proceeds of the sale being an asset of Khan, a major portion of it was transferred with his consent, to Jemmima to settle Khan’s loan and 100,000 pounds was retained in the account to meet other expenses and liabilities that might accrue in the future. All these funds continued to be an asset of Khan till the last penny had been consumed.
In addition to the dissimilarity in the signatures of the respondent 1 on both the letters, the address of the respondent 1 organisation [Imran Khan Cancer Appeal] given at the bottom of each letter is also not the same, while both these letters were issued with a gap of 7 days.
Published in Daily Times, October 13th 2017.
