Apex court reserves verdict in PTI chief’s disqualification case

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Tuesday reserved its judgement on petitions seeking disqualiication of Pakistan Tehrik-e-insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan and his secretary general Jehangir Tareen.

A three-member bench, headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar heard the pleas iled by Pakistan Muslim Leaguenawaz (PML-N) leader Hanif Abbasi.

The chief justice made it clear that judgementshouldnotbeexpectedanytime soon. “The court has to decide whether Imran was an honest man.”

During the hearing, he asked if hiding assets in the nomination paper was a mistake or deliberate lying. On this, Imran’s counsel Naeem Bukhari said that it might be a mistake that his client failed to declare his income.

Justice Nisar said the court has to decide which side telling the truth. “How will the mistakes committed in past impact the future?”

Meanwhile, an anti-terrorism court (ATC) of Islamabad granted Imran bail in four cases pertaining to an attack on Pakistan Television, Parliament building and torturing of a senior police oficial during his sit-in of 2014.

Imran appeared before the ATC after it issued bailable arrest warrants for him for ignoring summons. The court later declared him a proclaimed offender when police submitted a report regarding failure to arrest Imran.

The PTI chief appeared before the court along with his counsel. It ordered the PTI chairman to be part of the investigations and record his statement to police before adjourning the hearing to Nov.24.

Later, Imran said the cases against him were politically motivated, and added that he was peacefully protesting for transparent elections but was booked on terrorism charges. “If they can lodge terrorism case against me, then they can do it with anybody. These people can issue arrest warrants for anybody in the name of terrorism.”