SC cannot disqualify Imran Khan for submitting false declaration under PPO: CJP

PML-N counsel accuses Imran of collecting funds from prohibited sources in the United States

ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP), Mian Saqib Nisar, observed on Tuesday that the top most court cannot disqualify Imran Khan as a member of National Assembly for submitting false declarations about his party funds.

The chief justice reminded Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) counsel Akram Sheikh that under the Political Party Ordinance 2002 only funds collected through prohibited sources could be confiscated.

Sheikh, who is representing PML-N leader Hanif Abbasi before SC’s three-judge bench, had asked the court to take action against the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief for submitting forged documents with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).



He also argued before the court that US policy had severely harmed Pakistan and it was a matter of great concern that PTI was getting money through dubious sources in the United States.

Justice Umar Ata Bandial, a judge of the bench, questioned the PML-N counsel if the agent who collects PTI funds in the States is an extension of the party or working as a collecting agent. The bench further asked Imran’s counsel to explain their position over the submission of a false affidavit which said the party did not receive any funds collected through prohibited sources.



On this, Sheikh said that if the court held that Imran’s affidavit before the ECP on foreign funding proved to be real, he would withdraw his case.

PML-N leader Hanif had filed a petition in the SC earlier this year to seek the disqualification of Imran and Jahangir Tareen as members of the National Assembly on the basis of concealment of their sources of income.

The PTI chief, through his counsel Naeem Bukhari, had also submitted a reply over the miscellaneous application filed by PML-N leader for impleading the federal government and ECP as party in the main case.