LAHORE: In his reply submitted to the Lahore High Court (LHC) on a petition filed against 64 prominent personalities, including past and current rulers, former president retired Gen Pervez Musharraf has denied having acquired any undeclared assets, either inside or outside the country.

Advocate Akhtar Shah filed the brief reply on behalf of the former president, which said that all the assets of his client were legal and had already been declared.

The lawyer urged the court to dismiss the allegations against Gen Musharraf.

The petition was filed by Barrister Javed Iqbal Jafree against dozens of prominent personalities — including Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, his wife Kulsoom Nawaz, son Hussain Nawaz and brother Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif; Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chief Imran Khan and his former wife Jemima Goldsmith; former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gillani and his wife; former president Asif Ali Zardari and his son Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari; Faryal Talpur, Gen Musharraf, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, former interior minister Rehman Malik, PML-Q chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, Pervez Elahi, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Malik Riaz Hussain of Bahria Town, former chief justices of the LHC Khawaja Muhammad Sharif and Iftikhar Hussain Chaudhry; and former presidents of the Supreme Court Bar Association Hamid Khan, Asma Jahangir and Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan.

According to the petitioner, the people mentioned in the petition transferred at least $400 billion to foreign countries and committed money laundering in the process.

By doing so they caused a huge loss to the national exchequer. He alleged that black money was used to buy the properties abroad.

The petitioner requested the court to direct the respondents to bring back the assets to the country.

Justice Mamoon Rashid will take up the petition on April 27.

Published in Dawn, April 16th, 2017