ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court is to take up petitions filed by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) for hearing tomorrow (Thursday), seeking action against two mainstream political parties, PML-N and PPP, for receiving party funding from ‘illegal’ foreign sources.
Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Justice Saqib Nisar dismissed preliminary objections raised by Supreme Court registrar office and set January 11 for hearing the petitions.
The SC registrar had previously raised objections that the concerned forums had not been approached and returned the petitions filed by PTI lawmakers Asad Umar and Shireen Mazari.
The petitioners then filed an appeal against the decision.
The petitions have been deemed as a counterblast to a PML-N petition filed against Imran Khan and Jahangir Tareen resulting in PTI’s General Secretary Tareen’s ouster as an MNA. However, Khan was vindicated in all allegations levelled by PML-N leader Hanif Abbasi pertaining to foreign funding through illegal means, concealing real source of income and an ownership of offshore company.
The petitions seeks top court’s injunctions for a scrutiny of the two political parties’ accounts for 2013-15 after which the respective party leaders, namely Nawaz Sharif and Asif Ali Zardari, be held guilty of making misstatements under Article 13 of the Political Parties Order (PPO) as well as Articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution that deal with disqualification of the parliamentarians.
