ISLAMABAD: As the Supreme Court resumes disqualification case against Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan on Tuesday, petitioner and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Hanif Abbasi intends to submit additional documents on Saturday to prove that Mr Khan has neither mentioned his London flat nor Banigala property in statements of assets and liabilities from 2004 onward submitted to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

At the last hearing on Sept 12, a three-judge SC bench, headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, had highlighted certain gaps in Mr Khan’s money trail leading to the purchase of Banigala estate.

In his petition, Mr Abbasi has sought the disqualification of Imran Khan and PTI secretary general Jahangir Khan Tareen for non-disclosure of assets, ownership of offshore companies as well as the PTI being a foreign-aided party.

At the previous hearing, the Supreme Court had wondered whether Mr Khan, who had been contesting elections since 1997, had ever declared in his statements of assets before the ECP, income tax returns and loan worth over Rs40 million he got from his ex-wife for the purchase of Banigala property.

Senior counsel Mohammad Akram Sheikh, while talking to Dawn, recalled that during the hearing the court had directed Mr Khan to place on record all statements of assets and liabilities, with an observation that this was a public record and could be obtained from the commission on payment of requisite fee.

Pursuant to the observation, he said, he had submitted to the ECP a letter asking for the nomination papers, along with a list of statement of assets and liabilities of 1997 elections in which, according to information provided by the ECP on its website, Mr Khan had contested elections from five different constituencies.

The counsel said he had also sought records of 2002 elections as well as of subsequent five years. However, he said, the ECP did provide the record of 1997 elections since, according to the commission, it was not available. But the commission provided the record of 2002 elections, along with the list of assets and liabilities of 2013 till date. According to the ECP, Mr Khan was not a candidate in the 2008 elections because he had boycotted them.

According to the list of assets and liabilities, the counsel said, the PTI chief had not declared any document which narrated disclosure of major transactions such as sale of his London Draycott Aveneue flat, acquisition of Banigala property, setting up of offshore company Niazi Services Limited, although Mr Khan had in 2002 obtained tax amnesty for Rs2m as purchase value of his London flat which in fact was purchased by NSL.

Likewise, in the record of 2003 to 2006 till 2007, all assets and liabilities which were otherwise admitted by Mr Khan did not mention the flats, the counsel claimed.

Published in Dawn, September 23rd, 2017