Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader and MNA Muhammad Hanif Abbasi on Tuesday filed a review petition against the Supreme Court’s December 15, 2017 verdict in the disqualification case against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairperson Imran Khan.

In his review plea, Mr Abbasi requested the court to review its earlier verdict and disqualify Imran Khan for non-disclosure of his assets and ownership of offshore companies, as the facts about the Bani Gala property of Imran Khan clearly shows that he was pursuing a deliberate plan to ensure that he could obtain the property as Benami and that there should be no public record of him (Imran) acquiring the property directly in his own name in the revenue records.

The review plea states that Mr Khan purportedly made all the payments through his friend Rashid Ali Khan so that there should be no record of payments being made by him (Mr. Khan). It states that for all practical purposes Jemima Khan was being used to serve the same purpose that is desired to be achieved when acquisitions are made in the name of an offshore company.

It said the affairs relating to the Bani Gala property clearly disclosed that the property was owned benami by Jemima Khan and benami for Imran Khan. It said Mr Khan should have declared this property in the sworn declarations submitted in the the Election Commission of Pakistan.

The plea states that it is clearly on record that Mr Khan had taken elaborate measures to conceal his actual link with the property so that there should be no public records to show his link with the property.

The review plea says that Mr Khan borrowed the money in the name of his friend and not in his own name, whereas payments were made by his friend and transfers of property were procured in the name of his spouse.

It argues that as far as public record is concerned, Mr Khan became the owner through a gift, whereas in fact and as a matter of record, the entire sale price was paid by him (partly by borrowing).

It said that Jemima Khan was never in possession of the property, adding that it was clearly admitted by Mr Khan in his power of attorney that the property was purchased by him (Imran Khan Niazi) and was being held as benami.

It said the agreement to sell was in the name of Imran Khan himself, and Imran Khan had been consistently changing his stance regarding the property during the hearing of the case,” the review petition stated.

In its Dec 15, 2017 verdict, the Supreme Court had partially rejected the petition of Hanif Abbasi by declaring PTI chairman Imran Khan ‘cleared’ and disqualifying the secretary general Jahangir Khan Tareen for life term.

The court had held that that Imran Khan was not liable to declare Niazi Services Ltd (NSL) in his 2013 nomination papers as he was not its’ shareholder. It had held that Mr Khan had submitted all the information sought by the court, however only a small amount of the money trail sent by his former wife Jemima Khan was unaccounted for. With regard to Bani Gala property, the judgment stated that Khan had purchased the land for his family.

The court had ruled that Imran Khan was not disqualified as a parliamentarian as the petitioner was not directly affected in the foreign funding case. It was ruled that Imran Khan was not bound to declare his offshore company, as he had declared his London flat in an amnesty scheme and that his former spouse Jemima gave him (Imran) the funds for buying the Bani Gala property.

Published in Daily Times, January 17^th 2018.