ISLAMABAD: Senior counsel Naeem Bokhari told the Supreme Court on Thursday that money was remitted to the accounts of Rashid Ali Khan from London instead of PTI chief Imran Khan’s because of constant travelling of Mr Khan.

Since Mr Khan was travelling to and from London frequently to keep the union intact and persuade his ex-wife Jemima Khan to reconsider her decision of leaving Pakistan forever along with the children, therefore whatever was remitted by Jemima Khan came directly to Rashid Ali Khan’s accounts, the counsel argued.

He further said that Rashid Ali Khan was a very close friend of Mr Khan as well as Ms Jemima but emphasised before the court that it should also consider the bona fide of the petitioner Hanif Abbasi before deciding the disqualification petition against Mr Khan.

The Supreme Court bench had taken up the petition of Hanif Abbasi seeking disqualification of Imran Khan and PTI Secretary General Jahangir Khan Tareen over non-disclosure of assets, existence of offshore companies by Mr Khan and Mr Tareen as well as being a foreign-aided party.

The counsel recalled that Mr Abbasi had the lost 2013 election against Mr Khan but he preferred not to challenge the nomination papers of Mr Khan and also avoided instituting any election petition before the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

The current petition was also a counterblast to counter the petition moved by Mr Khan in the Panama Papers case, the counsel said.

Referring to the tax laws in relation to the non-resident or resident Pakistanis and liability to declare income in Pakistan even though it was earned abroad, the counsel argued that the definition of non-resident Pakistani was the same in all the three laws which were promulgated in Pakistan in 1922, 1979 and 2001.

The rule of thumb, however, was the same stating that a person who stayed for over 182 days in a year had to declare his earnings, he said.

Justice Umar Ata Bandial, however, observed that the present case concerned the foreign assets and not foreign income.

Meanwhile, Imran Khan also re-tweeted Jemima Goldsmith’s tweet in which she stated that: “Finally tracked down 15 years old bank statement to prove Imran Khan’s money trail/innocence in court. Now please go after the real crooks.”

The tweet came in response to earlier court directions to Mr Khan’s counsel to submit statement of accounts of Ms Jemima.

Naeem Bokhari had also told the court on Wednesday that he had been assured that Imran Khan’s ex-wife had been able to track down her bank statement from the Lloyds Bank in the UK. As soon the documents were completed, they would be provided to the court, the counsel had assured.

On Thursday Chartered Accountant Asim Zulfikar Ali of the Ferguson also briefed the court about the income tax laws.

The court then postponed further proceedings till June 13.

Published in Dawn, June 2nd, 2017