Supreme Court’s (SC) Justice Qazi Faez Isa, who is facing a presidential reference for not disclosing his family’s assets, on Tuesday put the federal government in a tight spot before a full bench of the apex court by pointing out key leaders of the ruling party who also owned properties in the United Kingdom (UK), including Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan and his special assistant on accountability, Shahzad Akbar.
As a 10-judge full court, headed by Justice Umar Ata Bandial, continued hearing the petitions against the reference, Justice Isa in a written statement informed the bench that PM Imran owned six properties, Akbar (five), Special Assistant to the PM on Overseas Pakistanis Zulfiqar Bukhari (seven) and Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) on Youth Affairs Usman Dar have three to his name.
Former federal information minister Firdous Ashiq Awan and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) stalwart Jahangir Tareen each owned a property there as well. In addition, the judge submitted before the court that former military ruler Gen (r) Pervez Musharraf owned two properties in the UK.
Justice Isa submitted the statement in response to SAPM Akbar telling the court that he did not receive any salary or benefit as the head of the Asset Recovery Unit (ARU).
“Taking a cue from what is stated to have transpired in the case of the petitioner’s family, the search engine 192.com was used to search a few known public figures,” the statement read.
The judge clarified that he was “not saying or suggesting, let alone allege” that the people he had identified had illegally acquired any property in the UK in violation of the income tax, the foreign exchange and/or money laundering laws.
“Before an allegation of non-compliance with income tax law is made, the Federal Board of Revenue must check its records [of these individuals] and consider how much taxable income was declared and income-tax paid and whether they had non-taxable income, such as from agricultural land, which the Constitution exempts from payment of income tax.”
Justice Isa further stated that before making an allegation with regard to the illegal transfer of money abroad, the State Bank “must check to determine whether the said individuals had foreign exchange accounts and whether through these accounts money was remitted abroad, to exclude the possibility of it sent to the UK through Hawala, Hundi or by any other illegal means”.
