Nobody can be disqualified for receiving prohibited funds: SC

ISLAMABAD: During the hearing of foreign funding case against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Tuesday, Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar noted that under the law no one can be disqualified for receiving prohibited foreign funding, however, the funds can be confiscated. A three-member Supreme Court bench comprising Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, Justice Umar Ata Bandial and Justice Faisal Arab was hearing a petition filed by PML-N’s Hanif Abbasi seeking disqualification of PTI Chairman Imran Khan and Secretary General Jahangir Tareen for non-disclosure of assets, ownership of offshore companies and PTI being a foreign-funded party. Resuming his arguments, Akram Sheikh, counsel for Hanif Abbasi, argued before the court that PTI received majority of funds through prohibited foreign sources. He said PTI’s one agent, Haji Nasrullah, collected donations from Indian companies and sent to the party. The chief justice responded that there was no law which provided that a political party can be disqualified on the basis of a fake certificate. He noted that neither Representation of the People Act, nor the Political Parties Act mentions that a party can be disqualified for submitting a fake certificate. Akram Sheikh accused PTI of receiving funds exceeding one million dollars from party’s US chapter, which is against the US Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA). However, the chief justice maintained that American laws were not applicable in Pakistan. Akram Sheikh argued that since the PTI has not disclosed the name of its donors, the party must be disqualified under Articles 62 and 63 of the constitution. “An MNA can be disqualified even for failing to declare his assets,” said Sheikh, hinting at the recent disqualification of Nawaz Sharif. “Law provides that a person will be disqualified for not declaring his assets,” the chief justice remarked, adding that the judges would not comment any further on the Panama Paper case verdict. Akram Sheikh’s contention that PTI received ‘billions of dollars’ as foreign forbidden funds prompted the judges to ask how anyone could determine which funds were illegal. The bench rejected the arguments of the counsel that PTI chairman’s charity projects were also funded by foreign sources. The judges noted that the law does not forbid receiving foreign funds for charity purposes. Akram Sheikh contended that PTI submitted forged documents to the apex court that show foreign remittances only collected from dual nationals or people of Pakistani origin, but hide the donations collected from allegedly prohibited sources. He said he was not asking the court to ban PTI or confiscate its funds through the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). He said that PTI head (Imran Khan) be declared dishonest for issuing a bogus certificate to the ECP, saying the party did not receive any funds from prohibited sources. PTI’s senior counsel Anwar Mansoor asked why Khan should be held responsible when he had no information about the funds sent to Pakistan by PTI US LLC allegedly from prohibited sources. He recalled that Imran Khan had already issued a policy for foreign agents, asking them not to accept any donations coming from questionable sources. He explained that since such information had surfaced for the first time during the course of this hearing, the party was taking action against its agent. During the hearing, Justice Umar Ata Bandial astonished how the PTI would account for the discrepancy that the party had received certain funds from prohibited sources and some from legitimate ones. He also asked how the party had allowed its agent to collect money from such sources, and whether or not the agent should be held responsible. Akram Sheikh argued that in its 700-page reply, the PTI had evasively denied the allegation of collecting funds from prohibited sources, but it never claimed that it did not collect any donation from corporations and foreigners. Rather, it had been stated that the funds that were remitted to PTI Pakistan, from 2010 to date, did not contain any prohibited funding. He contended that the list of donors submitted by the PTI in three volumes was false as these lists did not exist on the US Foreign Agents Registration Authority (FARA) website. He maintained that the total amount remitted to PTI Pakistan from PTI USA LLC (Texas) in FARA`s records between Feb 2010 and June 2013 could not be reconciled with the lists provided for the same period to the apex court. Akram Sheikh contended that a total of 113 entries were copied/pasted twice to make up for the donations that came from prohibited sources. Similarly, he alleged, the party had showed false accounts for the year 2012-13, which contained repeated entries of donors as well as ghost entries in clear violation of FARA rules. He was still arguing when the court rose to re-assembly today (Wednesday) directing Akram Sheikh and Anwar Mansoor to submit additional documents.     Published in Daily Times, August 2nd , 2017.