LHC moved to seek Tareen's explanation over chairing high-level govt meeting

PTI former secretary general is barred from political life after top court ruling of his disqualification

LAHORE: A petition has been filed in the Lahore High Court (LHC) seeking an explanation from Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) former secretary general Jahangir Tareen for chairing a top government officials meeting despite his lifetime disqualification.

In December 2017, the ruling party's senior leader was disqualified under Article 62(1)(f) of the Constitution by the Supreme Court of Pakistan on a petition filed by Hanif Abbasi for misdeclaration of assets.

Advocate Chaudhry Shoaib Saleem, in the petition had contended: "Tareen was disqualified by the Supreme Court owing to being not Sadiq and Ameen under Article 62(1)(f) of the Constitution and Section 99 of Representation of People Act (Ropa)."

The plea also stated that it is an open secret that Tareen has been involved in lobbying to form the PTI government on both the provincial or the federal sides.



Saleem went on to say that Tareen had taken part in meetings held in the Prime Minister’s Secretariat illegally and unlawfully.

"A disqualified person has no such legal and the constitutional mandate even to have sitting in such meetings for being dishonest as declared by the Supreme Court," the petition read.

The lawyer said that Tareen had convened and chaired a meeting titled "Livestock Emergency Working Group – 100 days Agenda” earlier on September 13 without any legal mandate.

The meeting was attended by government officers, which is tantamount to making a mockery of the decisions of higher courts and ridiculing the process of law, he implored.

The petitioner argued that the media widely reported the incident which had raised question marks in the minds of public at large about the sanctity of court orders.

He asked the court to summon Tareen and seek an explanation that under what authority of law he convened and chaired the meeting.

It is further prayed that direction may very kindly be issued to respondent No 1 to permanently restrain Prime Minister Imran Khan from allowing Tareen to participate in any official meeting in any manner and capacity whatsoever.