Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on Thursday informed the Supreme Court that his ‘purported’ statement regarding money laundering was illegally and forcefully obtained after the military coup of Pervez Musharraf in 1999.

“There is neither any allegation of misdeclaration of assets nor any link whatsoever with any Panama offshore company levelled against the answering respondent (Ishaq Dar),” his counsel stated.

Dar is also a respondent in a petition filed by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan seeking disqualification of Prime Minister Nawaz Shareef, Ishaq Dar and Captain (r) Muhammad Safdar from the seats of the National Assembly over alleged money laundering and tax evasion through offshore companies. Dar submitted his concise statement through his counsel Salman Aslam Butt, wherein he stated that he was the chief executive of non-banking financial institution (NBFI) until 1992 by virtue of his professional qualification.

He further stated that disqualification through the petition was sought solely on the basis of a purported confessional statement having contents pertaining to alleged money laundering and pertaining to transactions. “With respect to the purported confessional statement of the answering respondent (Dar), suffice it to say that evidentiary value thereof has already been adjudicated upon by the honourable Lahore High Court in Writ Petition No 2617 of 2011 and it was ruled that the said purported statement was neither admissible nor had any evidentiary value,” Ishaq Dar stated in the statement.

Similarly, the reply stated that the case regarding purported statement had also been dismissed by the Islamabad High Court in 2014.

The prime minister’s son-in-law, Captain (r) Muhammad Safdar, while submitting his reply through Salman Aslam Butt before the top court, stated that the entire structure of Imran Khan’s case in the petition against him had been built on false, misconceived and incorrect assertions.

He further stated that he had duly disclosed the assets and liabilities of his wife, Maryam Safdar, in the nomination papers by enclosing her tax returns. “The petition is based on unsubstantiated facts/documents containing false and incorrect information, and is liable to be dismissed”.