‘Probe Jemima’s tax returns’

Petitions state that during her time in Pakistan, Jemima Goldsmith did not file income tax

ISLAMABAD: Paying Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in the same coin, Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) on Wednesday moved a constitutional petition in the Supreme Court that targets Imran Khan’s ex-wife for not filing income tax returns.

PML-N leader Hanif Abbasi – who lost the NA-56 Rawalpindi seat to Khan – has filed two separate constitutional petitions under Article 184 (3) of the constitution, seeking disqualification of Imran Khan and Jahangir Tareen as members National Assembly on the basis of the concealment of sources of income. The petitions have been filed through lawyer Akram Sheikh.



The petitions state that during her time in Pakistan, Jemima Goldsmith – Imran’s first wife –did not file her income tax, adding that this shows that she was in fact dependent on her then-husband, as she had no taxable income.

“In light of the foregoing, [Imran] was obliged to declare assets owned by Goldsmith in his own wealth statements, but failed to do so, in violation of the mandatory provisions of the Income Tax Ordinance (ITO),” says the petition.

The petitioner states that Imran was also required to declare his wife’s assets as she was his dependent, but he failed to declare any such thing before the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in any of his nomination papers during the relevant period.

Hanif Abbasi contends that Imran has willfully violated the ITO by purchasing properties in the name of his ex-wife, who then gifted these properties back to him after leaving Pakistan.

Goldsmith executed a general power of attorney on April 12, 2005 in London, declaring that 300 kanals and 5 marlas in Mohra Noor, Islamabad was purchased by Imran and that the land was transferred in her name by Imran as a ‘benami transaction’, and that after their divorce, she did not intend to keep the land, so she appointed Saifullah Sawar Khan Niazi to transfer it back to Imran, the petition says, adding that Imran “was the real owner of the said land since 2002”.



The petition further states that Goldsmith failed, according to some reliable sources, to declare the same property in the tax returns she filed in the United Kingdom.

Likewise, the same petitioner contends that Tareen violated the Representation of Peoples Act by not fully declaring his offshore holdings in his statement of assets and liabilities filed before the ECP, along with his nomination papers for contesting 2013 general elections.

He also pleaded that FBR, NAB, and ECP independently probe the “false” financial declarations, misappropriation and evasion of
both leaders.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 3^rd, 2016.