Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Thursday granted Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan one-week time to furnish his reply on a controversy surrounding the documents he submitted in the apex court regarding his Bani Gala residence.

On Wednesday, a former official of the Bara Kahu Union Council (UC) in a report submitted in the Supreme Court had stated that the no-objection certificate (NOC) submitted by the PTI chairman in the apex court about his Bani Gala estate was ‘fake’ as it had never been issued by the local body.

Imran Khan’s counsel Babar Awan did not turn up for the hearing on Thursday. However, another lawyer, Faisal Chaudhry, sought time from the court to furnish the reply, stating that they still had to obtain the copy of the CDA’s report. The court accepted his request and directed Imran Khan to furnish reply within a week.

The counsel rejected media reports that PTI chief’s Bani Gala residence was built illegally. “You should deliver your denial outside the court,” the chief justice told him, besides regretting that the documents were leaked out to the media before submitting in the court.

A three-member Supreme Court bench comprising Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, Justice Umar Ata Bandial and Justice Ijazul Ahsan heard the case pertaining to encroachments and environmental degradation in Bani Gala.

During the hearing, the chief justice observed that he was more concerned with the public health aspect of the case, adding that polluted water of the catchment areas was going in the Rawal Lake. He said he did not want hazardous water to be supplied to the public.

An additional attorney general apprised the court that he will make a film of the area having encroachments through a drone camera and submit it in the court. To a query, he said he did not give the report about Imran Khan’s estate to the media.

Taking notice of the remarks of Minister of State for Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry, who was present in the court, the chief justice asked him to avoid passing unnecessary remarks against the judiciary. He asked the minister that last night he had said in a TV show that the judiciary will be tested. “What tests you have to give to the court?” the chief justice asked him, adding that whether he had come to the court to give any tests. The minister tried to respond but the court directed him to sit on his seat.

Published in Daily Times, March 2^nd 2018.