PESHAWAR: An appellate tribunal on Thursday upheld the candidature of former prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chief Imran Khan for a vacant National Assembly seat from Mardan district and rejected an appeal seeking his disqualification from contesting the NA-22 by-election.

Peshawar High Court Justice Ijaz Anwar of a single-member tribunal pronounced a short order for it after lawyers for Mr Imran, appellant and Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) completed arguments.

The appeal was filed by a NA-22 voter, Ali Haider, who wanted the tribunal to set aside the acceptance by his constituency’s returning officer of the PTI chief’s nomination papers and declare that the PTI chief is not qualified to become a member of the National Assembly.

The appellant had claimed that Mr Imran concealed information about the toshakhana gifts he kept as well as 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, and didn’t mention in the nomination papers several criminal cases registered against him.

Voter had accused PTI chief of concealing toshakhana gifts and assets

The appellant also contended that the respondent (Mr Imran) did not disclose why he wanted to contest by-elections from NA-22 and eight other constituencies despite already receiving salary as an MNA.

Barrister Gohar Ali Khan appeared for Mr Imran and insisted his client was no longer an MNA.

He said his client had resigned as an MNA and his resignation letter was accepted by the former speaker but couldn’t be sent to the ECP due to some technical reasons.

The lawyer contended that under Article 223 of the Constitution, a candidate was allowed to contest for more than one seats of the assembly but had to retain a single seat after polls.

He argued that Mr Imran had retained 11 toshakhana gifts and deposited the required amount as per the relevant policy.

Barrister Gohar said the amount of those gifts was not concealed and instead, his client had mentioned it in his income tax returns for the financial year 2019-20.

He said his client had received 329 gifts as the prime minister but retained only 11 by depositing the required amount.

The lawyer alleged that there were instances in past when the rulers had retained expensive gifts including cars and had not deposited a single penny in return.

About concealment of criminal cases, Barrister Gohar contended that under the Elections Act a candidate had to mention cases registered six months prior to the submission of nomination papers which was Feb 17 in the case.

He added that the cases referred by the appellant were registered after that date so under the law mentioning those was not mandatory.

The counsel contended that Mr Imran was only a trustee in Al-Qadir Trust and under the law a trustee did not receive any benefit, therefore, it was not mandatory for him to declare the assets of the said trust.

Moreover, he argued that the appeal was not maintainable as the appellate had field objection with the RO after acceptance of Mr Imran’s nomination papers.

ECP counsel Mohsin Kamran Siddique and senior law officer Riaz Khattak also contended that the objection raised by the appellant was time barred and the appeal was not maintainable.

The appellant’s counsel contended that perusal of income tax returns of Mr Imran 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 alleged 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.

Also, the tribunal rejected two appeals filed by former MNA Shaukat Ali for the rejection of nomination papers of independent candidates Shaukat Ali and Emran Khan for NA-31, Peshawar, by-election.

PTI leader Shaukat Ali is the 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.

Published in Dawn, August 26th, 2022