ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s dissident leader Akbar S. Babar has urged PTI chairman Imran Khan to seek apology from retired justice Wajihuddin Siddiqui because a recent Supreme Court verdict has held that Jahangir Tareen is dishonest.

Speaking at a news conference along with MNA Dawar Khan Kundi on Wednesday, Mr Babar said Mr Khan had rejected Mr Siddiqui’s report about intra-party elections but time had proved that it was based on facts.

Justice Sidiqui, who was head of a PTI tribunal, had recommended suspension of the party membership of Mr Tareen, Aleem Khan, Pervez Khattak and Nadir Leghari because of their involvement in rigging in the intra-party elections held in 2013.

“However Mr Khan decided to corner retired justice Wajihuddin... He sacked the head of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Accountability Bureau retired Gen Hamid Khan and others who raised fingers at him or at leaders close to him,” Mr Babar said.

SC verdict has proved Tareen is dishonest, says Akbar S. Babar

“Time has proved that all the allegations levelled by me were correct and the PTI is involved in illegal transaction of money through Hundi,” he alleged. “The party receives huge amounts from the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, United Kingdom and Canada.”

Mr Babar, who was one of the founding members of the PTI, said Mr Khan had become part of “the mafia which does not believe in change and he thinks that he is above the law”.

About the Supreme Court’s Dec 15 verdict regarding PTI’s funding, Mr Babar claimed that the decision had been misinterpreted by many and there appeared to be a deliberate attempt to cast doubts on the merits of the verdict.

“It is a historic verdict empowering the Election Commission of Pakistan to regulate political parties and transform them into transparent and accountable public institutions instead of personal fiefdoms. The verdict gives unfettered powers to the ECP, long denied by the PTI, to scrutinise finances of political parties... and make their leadership accountable for any wrongdoing,” Mr Babar said.

“The Supreme Court verdict has also conclusively removed all hurdles and (countered) delaying tactics of the PTI to stall ECP scrutiny of the party accounts,” he said.

Mr Babar said the last three years of the foreign funding case had revealed one thing that Imran Khan “has betrayed each and every commitment made with the people; instead of exposing the corrupt and their corruption he has protected them and instead of offering himself for accountability he has used every trick in the book to dodge accountability.

“Instead of strengthening the ECP, he has used every trick to undermine its credibility only to avoid his accountability,” he said. “The Supreme Court verdict has validated the ECP’s powers to regulate political parties and now it is up to the commission to play its role in institutionalising them to free them from the stranglehold of individuals who consider political parties as their personal fiefdoms.”

Published in Dawn, December 21st, 2017