ISLAMABAD: Former chief justice of Pakistan Saqib Nisar rejected the allegation of extending relief to PTI Chairman Imran Khan in a case related to purchase of the Bani Gala property.
Nisar, who served as the 25th CJP from Dec 2016 till Jan 2019, issued the statement after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s Adviser on Sports and Tourism Awn Chaudhry, the former PTI leader, claimed he had prior information that the PTI chief would be given the “NRO” in the case.
In a statement, the former top judge maintained that no one, including the PTI chairman and military leaders, could dare contact him for relief in the case. He said retired Justice Faisal Arab and Justice Umar Ata Bandial, currently serving as CJP, were part of the bench and no one could question their integrity.
Last week, Awn Chaudhry, while speaking to a private media group, claimed it was pre-decided that Imran Khan would not be disqualified and former PTI stalwart Jahangir Khan Tareen would be sent packing. The PM’s aide said he had prior information that Tareen would be disqualified despite submitting all the documents to the court.
In December 2017, the apex court dismissed a plea to disqualify Imran Khan while it had disqualified then PTI Secretary General Jahangir Tareen for not declaring the assets in the nomination papers. The SC had issued the verdict after almost a year of hearings on the petition filed by Pakistan Muslim League-N’s Hanif Abbasi, seeking disqualification of Khan and Tareen.
The PML-N leader had accused Imran Khan of obscuring his off-shore company, collecting international prohibited funds for his political organization Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI), stating fabricated facts in his nomination papers, purchasing the Bani Gala property under his wife’s name, making illegal use of the tax amnesty scheme, and taking different stances in his affidavit.
