ISLAMABAD: A day after Supreme Court disqualified former Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) secretary general Jahangir Tareen, party chief Imran Khan Saturday said that he will keep the PTI leader ‘right next to’ him. “For me it doesn’t matter whether you [Tareen] hold a position in PTI or are in parliament, you will always remain right next to me as we build Naya Pakistan InshaAllah,” Imran tweeted on Saturday. Despite earlier assurances of accepting the apex court’s verdict in letter and spirit, Imran said the former PTI secretary general was disqualified only on interpretation of trust deed and no financial wrongdoing was found against him. However, the apex court bench that heard the case in its judgement termed him ‘not an honest person’ and declared him ineligible for holding public office under Article 62(1)(f) of the Constitution. Tareen was convicted for deliberately giving a false statement before the higher judiciary to conceal the ownership of the £5 million worth property in the UK.
Published in Daily Times, December 17th 2017.