Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mian Saqib Nisar on Tuesday asked whether the violation of every law amounted to ‘dishonesty’.

A three-member SC bench, comprising CJP Mian Saqib Nisar Justice Umar Ata Bandial and Justice Faisal Arab, was hearing a petition filed by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Hanif Abbassi, seeking disqualification of PTI chairman Imran Khan and secretary general MNA Jahangir Tareen for non-disclosure of their assets, ownership of offshore companies, and PTI being a foreign-aided party.

The CJP also inquired whether the violation of every law could be the ground for disqualification. He noted that how the definition of dishonesty could surround the violation of every law.

In his arguments, Hanif Abbasi’s counsel Azid Nafees, contended that Tareen had acquired illegal money through illegal means.

He said the disqualification would have to be undertaken on the matter of dishonesty and not over the submission of nomination papers.

“Whether every illegal act makes someone dishonest,” the chief justice questioned, adding that these were the new arguments for which taking opinion of Tareen’s counsel Sikandar Bashir Mohmand was necessary.

He noted that whether the court should disqualify someone for violating the laws pertaining to day-to-day business dealings.

He also noted that according to the documents available on record, Tareen had paid off the penalty for insider trading. The counsel contended that under the law inside trading was a crime.

The chief justice then asked the counsel that he would have to prove that Tareen was dishonest. Meanwhile, Justice Umar Ata Bandial noted that insider trading did not have to be declared in the nomination papers. In response to some arguments of the counsel, the court noted that election tribunals were the appropriate forums for resolving the issues pertaining to the election of any person.

Abbasi’s counsel, however, argued that Tareen should be disqualified, as he had acquired income through insider trading, which was unlawful.

He contended that Tareen had conceded his insider trading by paying a penalty to the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) in January 2008, and this ground was quite enough to declare him ‘dishonest’.

He stated that Tareen had violated Sections 15-A (prohibition of insider trading) and 15-B (inside information) of the SECP Ordinance by doing insider trading. He argued that Tareen had also provided incorrect information in his nomination papers for 2013 election. “Thus he can be declared disqualified under Article 62 of the Constitution,” he said. The court adjourned the hearing for today (Wednesday).

Published in Daily Times, November 8^th 2017.