ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Friday unanimously disqualified Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan to become member of the parliament as it announced its verdict in the Toshakhana case.
The main question in the matter was whether a lawmaker could be disqualified on account of concealment of assets in his annual return. The judgment said that Imran Khan was found of corrupt practices. The judgement was reserved over a month ago by a five-member ECP bench headed by the Chief Election Commissioner after hearing arguments from both sides.
The Imran-led party was not hoping for ‘good’ from the forum for its alleged partiality. On the eve of the much-awaited decision, the party leadership continued its tirade against the ECP. “It seems that ECP is thinking up new ways to prove itself a political stakeholder every day,” PTI’s Asad Umar said a day earlier.
During the hearing of the case, the PTI chief adopted the stance that he and his wife had received around 58 gifts from August 1, 2018 to December 31, 2021. Of these gifts, only 14 were such that cost over Rs30,000 and he had purchased them from the Toshakhana while following the due process.
According to the reply, four units of the Toshakhana gifts were bought through a payment of Rs21.56 million and they were sold. The PTI chief further claimed that more than Rs5.8 million worth of the sold gifts were disclosed in the assets.
The reference against the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chairman was filed by the coalition government for “not sharing details” of the gifts he retained from the state Toshakhana and proceeds from their alleged sale.
National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf had sent the Toshakhana reference to the ECP, seeking Khan’s disqualification, in August. The reference contended that the PTI chief did not disclose the details of gifts taken from the state treasury and the amount received from the sale of those gifts.
Barrister Ali Zafar, while representing Imran Khan before the bench, had urged the ECP to quash the reference, terming it “misleading” based on “mala fide intentions and political motives”.
Established in 1974, the Toshakhana is a department under the administrative control of the Cabinet Division and stored precious gifts given to rulers, parliamentarians, bureaucrats, and officials by heads of other governments and states and foreign dignitaries.
