Islamabad: A three-member bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Saqib Nisar and comprising Justice Umar Ata Bandial and Justice Faisal Arab has resumed the hearing a petition filed by PML-N’s Hanif Abbasi, which seeks the disqualification of PTI chief Imran Khan as well as Tareen over the alleged non-disclosure of assets, existence of offshore companies, as well as receiving foreign funding for the party.
During the hearing apex court ordered the counsel of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) leader Jahangir Tareen to submit a reply to the points raised by Attorney General in connection with the laws of the Security and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP).
Attorney general argued that Tareen earned more than Rs70 million in shares trading and confessed to earning this money in an illegal manner. He further said that initially, Tareen did not raise any objection to the SECP’s action against him.
In response, Justice Faisal Arab commented that the action has already been challenged before the apex court. To this, Ausaf said that the transaction between Tareen and the SECP could not be reversed even if a section of the SECP’s laws was unconstitutional. The court ordered Tareen’s counsel to submit a written reply in response to the points raised by the AG.
In another hearing, Abbasi’s lawyer Azid Nafees had argued that Tareen should be disqualified as he had engaged in insider trading and acquired income through such activity. He added that Tareen had confessed his involvement in insider trading and also paid a penalty for it to the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan on January 12, 2008.
