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Published 15 Dec, 2017 05:30pm

'PTI no party of angels': Politicians react to verdict on Imran, Tareen

As a three-member bench of the Supreme Court handed down its verdict on the disqualification case against Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan and General Secretary Jahangir Tareen, representatives from not only the PTI and PML-N, but also the PPP jumped in with their two cents on the matter.

Here's a look at how political stalwarts nationwide reacted to the verdict:

PTI rejoices, will seek review for Tareen

PTI Chairman Imran Khan

"I thank God for being cleared in this fake case filed me by a drug dealer. Of course, a money launderer like Nawaz Sharif could find no one better to go to court against me.

"It is sad that the SC disqualified Jahangir Tareen, the politician who pays the most tax in this country. However, we will go back to court and ask for a review in his case as well."

PTI General Secretary Jahangir Tareen

An hour after the verdict came out, the PTI general secretary took to Twitter to ask a question that sounded a lot like Nawaz Sharif's Mujhe Kyun Nikala:

"Accusations Rejected by SC:

1) Misuse of authority, loan write-off

2) Insider Trading

3) Misdeclared Agri income

4) London property full money trail accepted not hidden, declared in children's assets since 2011.

And SC disqualifies me on mere interpretation of the trust deed?"

PTI Spokesperson Fawad Chaudhry

"This is a a huge victory. The petitions against PTI and Imran Khan have been dismissed. Of the three allegations against Jahangir Tareen, two have been dismissed.

"On the matter of the third allegation, it has been said that Article 62-1(f) applies. However, our leader has been dismissed on a technicality and we will file for a review petition, but we have largely been vindicated."

"I believe that 99pc of this decision is in our favour and just one per cent is against PTI. Corruption, money laundering and insider trading allegations against Tareen have been rejected. He has been disqualified for holding and not declaring a property which belongs to his children."

PTI leader Asad Umar

Tweeting on the matter of Jahangir Tareen's disqualification, Asad Umar said:

"Saddened by the decision about Jahangir Tareen. In the last few years his contribution to PTI are second only to Imran Khan."

PTI Sindh President Dr Arif Alvi

PTI Central Additional Secretary for Information Faisal Javed Khan

"Today, the Supreme Court has validated Imran Khan's honesty to this country."

"The reason why we — as a political party — asked for accountability for the country's political leaders is because Pakistan deserves honest leaders."

PML-N disgruntled, cries 'double-standards'

PML-N leader Daniyal Aziz

"We can all see what has happened here, Jahangir Tareen has been scapegoated to save Imran Khan and the PTI.

"This verdict is right according to the script. We do not need to go digging for anything in the case (against Khan): his confession was reported on June 1 in all newspapers. All we need to do is read leading newspapers for the day. Imran Khan gave a confessional statement that day, admitting to pay off his party loans by gambling."

"On the other hand, NAB has been asked to create cases against Nawaz Sharif and the timeline given for those cases has gone back to 1962. My question is, why has the ECP been given a five-year time frame to dig into Khan's case?"

"It is very clear this was done because the court knew there are certain things in the trail before this that could make things difficult for Imran Khan."

"This is political engineering. Farooq Sattar, Khursheed Shah and SC itself is saying there is political engineering in this country. The institutions which are the remains of British Raj are playing with the future of this country's children."

PML-N leader Uzma Bukhari

"I am shocked at the SC's ruling: how can they let Imran Khan go scot-free? Even the most important part of this case, the matter of their party's foreign funding, has been sent to the Election Commission of Pakistan.

"At this point, I would not have been shocked if the court would have let Jahangir Tareen walk free as well. However, his case was always a straightforward open-and-shut case and it still took the court a year to come up with a verdict for it.

"I will have to read the detailed judgement to understand why the court has done what its done but at the moment I am shocked."

PML-N leader Marriyum Aurangzeb

"On one hand, one man admits to owning offshore companies and it meant nothing. On the other hand, Nawaz Sharif was disqualified because he chose not to draw a salary from his son's company."

"However, this case has not come to an end yet. The most important part of the case has been sent to the Election Commission of Pakistan and now the commission will investigate their party's funding accounts."

"Those accounts have evidence of party funding coming from Hindus and Jews."

"Everyone said that the standard had been set through the Panamagate case verdict. Today, this case has lowered that bar."

"On one hand, a man who has had the support of the people from the grassroot level had to be disqualified; on the other, the person who has no such thing has been saved by the court."

PPP curious, comments from the sidelines

Bilawal Bhutto

Minutes after the verdict for Jahangir Tareen was issued, Biawal Bhutto took to Twitter to gloat:

"ATM out of order #TareenOut"

Sherry Rehman

PPP leader Sherry Rehman went on to ask an important question:

"As Imran Khan continues to play on, and Tareen is out, will the latter ask Mujay Kiyun Nikala too?"

Saeed Ghani

In a similar response, Senator Saeed Ghani tweeted:

"After today's verdict, if nothing else, Imran Khan has lost the right to say that PTI is a party of angels. His Secretary General Jahangir Tareen is an SC certified corrupt and disqualified man."

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