Income earned abroad not taxable, Imran tells SC

Says he is not bound to share documents of his wealth on petitioner’s demand

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan has contended before the Supreme Court that he is not taxable on his earnings made abroad nor is he required to declare his assets in Pakistan.

Imran, through his counsel Naeem Bukhari, submitted a reply over the petition filed by PML-N’s Hanif Abbasi, seeking complete record of the PTI chief’s wealth statements as well as other documents.

Imran’s reply says that he is not bound to share documents of his wealth on the demand of the petitioner, who seeks his disqualification regarding concealment of assets. “It is [the] discretion of the court to direct production of documents – not for the petitioner to seek the same,” adds the reply.

It further states that the application has been filed under erroneous impression that the proceedings before the apex court are adversarial in nature, when in fact they are inquisitorial, adding that the PML-N leader moved the plea after a lapse of six months and six days.



The reply also points out that the Sharif family did not produce a single document, which was sought to be ‘produced in the Panamagate case’. The applicant [Hanif Abbasi] conveniently overlooks that from 1971 till 2002, the respondent No 1 [Imran Khan] was not a holder of any public office nor residing in Pakistan even for tax purposes till the filing of his first tax returns.

It further states that as a professional cricketer in the UK, Imran was one of the highest paid cricketers.

“As a non-resident in Pakistan and even as a resident, the respondent No 1 [Imran] was advised that neither the money earned abroad nor the flat in London were taxable in Pakistan nor [are they] need[ed] to be declared as they did not attract the incidence of taxation,” says the reply.

The PTI chief says that the court has ample powers to summon any record considered necessary for adjudication.

Meanwhile, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) would, on July 12, hear PTI counsel’s arguments on the merits of a case, seeking disqualification of Imran Khan.



The case was adjourned on Thursday without any substantial progress after Imran’s lawyer objected that the petitioner had filed the case at the behest of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N).

Hashim Bhutta, brother of a former PML-N MNA, had moved the ECP, requesting the commission to disqualify Imran, accusing him of receiving funds for his party from sources prohibited under the law and giving a false affidavit that his party never received funds from any unlawful source.

The PTI foreign funding case has already been in the ECP since 2014. Founding PTI member Akbar S Babar in that case wants audit of the PTI funds.

PTI counsel Shahid Gondal during Thursday’s hearing objected that the petitioner had no legal ground to file any petition, seeking disqualification of Imran directly. Such a reference should come through the National Assembly speaker.

A reference sent by the speaker against the PTI chief had already been rejected by the ECP earlier this month.

The PTI counsel asked the ECP to first decide if such a petition was maintainable. The ECP decided to hear the arguments on the maintainability of the case on July 12.

Also, the ECP has fixed for hearing another case against the PTI in which the last month’s intra-party elections of the party were challenged by a former PTI worker from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa on July 11.

The Islamabad High Court granted on Thursday one more week to the PTI for submitting the required documents along with its petition, challenging the jurisdiction of the ECP as well as the ECP’s order of May 8 in the foreign funding case.

Justice Aamer Farooq has been directing the PTI to submit the ECP’s order but the party has yet to comply with the directive. Subsequently, Justice Farooq once again directed the PTI counsel to submit the ECP’s order of May 8 within seven days before the court.