PESHAWAR: An appellate tribunal on Monday issued a notice to former prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chief Imran Khan asking him to respond to an appeal for his disqualification from contesting by-election for a National Assembly seat from Mardan district, NA-22.

Peshawar High Court Justice Ijaz Anwar of the one-member tribunal fixed Aug 24 for next hearing into the appeal filed by voter Ali Haider, who called for the rejecting of the NA-22 returning officer’s order for accepting the PTI chief’s nomination papers and declaring that he was not qualified to become a member of the National Assembly.

The appellant claimed that Mr Imran concealed information about retaining gifts from Toshakhana and some other assets in his annual income tax returns; received prohibited funds in the name of his party; did not disclose details of the assets of the Al-Qadir University Project Trust to which he and his wife were trustees.

Senior lawyer Naveed Akhtar appeared for the appellant, whereas the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) was represented by its senior law officer, Riaz Khattak, and advocate Mohsin Kamran Siddique.

Appellant insists PTI chief didn’t disclose details of assets and Toshakhana gifts

The appellant’s counsel said his client had filed an objection petition before the returning officer but he turned down the same on August 17.

He contended that perusal of income tax returns of Imran Khan for the financial year 2018-19 and 2019-20 revealed that he concealed the valuable assets acquired from Toshakhana during the period 2018 to 2020.

The lawyer alleged that Mr Imran, with mala fide intentions, had concealed the gifts, which he discretely acquired after entering the office of prime minister, from the public eye, the ECP and the Federal Board of Revenue.

He said certain gifts were retained by the former prime minister, adding that the candidate and his spouse procured 52 items in the form of gifts from August 2018 to December 2021. He alleged that the total assessed value of the valuable assets was Rs142 million whereas the candidate paid only Rs38.98 million and retained the gifts but never disclosed those gifts.

The counsel claimed that the candidate also concealed the fact that the ECP concluded in the ‘Akbar S. Babar versus PTI’ case that prohibited funds were received by Mr Imran and the law was being set on motion for confiscation of those funds.

Moreover, he added that Mr Imran also concealed that a reference had already been sent to ECP by the NA speaker under Article 63(2) of the Constitution for initiation of disqualification proceedings against him.

He contended that the respondent did not disclose as to why and for what material contribution he was contesting the by-elections from NA-22 and eight other constituencies despite of the fact that he had already been receiving salary as an MNA.

Meanwhile, the tribunal also issued notices to two candidates for NA-31, Peshawar, Shaukat Ali and Emran Khan,in appeals filed by contesting candidate and former MNA, Shaukat Ali, seeking rejection of their nomination papers.

Appellant Shaukat Ali is a PTI leader and covering candidate of party chief Imran Khan for by-election in that constituency.

The appellant’s counsel contended that the two candidates had not properly filled their nomination papers and left several of the portions blank, which was violation of the Elections Act.

He said those candidates had also not provided information about bank accounts, which had to be opened for election expenses purposes.

The lawyer added that the opening of bank accounts was mandatory under the law.

Published in Dawn, August 23rd, 2022