By Muhammad Luqman
Pakistan’s Supreme Court rejected a petition to disqualify opposition leader Imran Khan on Friday from becoming member of the parliament. However, it barred his party Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaaf’s secretary general Jehangir Tareen for concealing the assets.
The apex court dismissed a petition bar cricketer turned politician as member of the national assembly ,five months after former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, was removed from parliament by the court on similar charges July 28.
“No dishonesty or omission can be attributed to him. This petition has no merits and is hereby dismissed,” Chief Justice Saqib Nisar told the court.
A lawmaker from Pakistan Muslim League, Nawaz Sharif’s party filed a separate complaint late last year alleging Khan and PTI secretary general Jahangir Tareen owned offshore companies and had not disclosed their assets in the election returns.
According to media reports, the Supreme Court disqualified Jehangir Khan Tareen. “The respondent is declared not to be an honest person. He ceased to be member of the parliament. The respondent is disqualified,” Chief Justice Mian Saquib Nisar said.
PTI spokesman Naeem Ul Haq said the party was disappointed with that judgment while Tareen in a twitter message said that he would continue to work as an ordinary worker of PTI.
“I gave 60 documents to the Supreme Court … Nawaz Sharif, took 300 billion rupees out of this country which he has to answer for … and for that he produced only one document,” Imran Khan told a press conference soon after the court verdict.
Earlier, the Supreme Court in another case refused to allow to open the Hudaibiya Case against the Sharif family, calling it a time-barred case.
