LAHORE - The Lahore High Court (LHC) election tribunal on Tuesday gave the last chance to Punjab’s Senior Minister Aleem Khan to submit his reply in a petition seeking his disqualification as member of the Punjab Assembly.
The tribunal had summoned the minister and sought a reply from him but he could not follow the court orders. The election tribunal consisting of Justice Chauhdry Iqbal gave the last opportunity to the minister for filing written reply in the election petition filed for his disqualification, and adjourned the hearing for January 21.
His counsel Azhar Siddiq Advocate could appear before the tribunal due to his engagement in other cases.
The LHC tribunal was hearing the petition filed by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) candidate from PP-158 Rana Ahsan Sharafat.
The petition said that a sum of Rs930 million of Old Age Benefit is outstanding against him. Moreover, he added, various inquiries were pending against him in the National Accountability Bureau and Federal Investigation Agency.
The petitioner contended that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader concealed his assets in the nomination papers he filed for the 2018 general elections.
Therefore, the petitioner pleaded, the Punjab minister was not eligible to hold public office. He added and submitted that Aleem Khan may kindly be disqualified as a member of the Punjab Assembly.
In March 2018, restraining the NAB from extending harassment to Aleem Khan, the Lahore High Court had directed the PTI leader to cooperate with the NAB in terms of inquiries pertaining to his housing projects.
The direction had come in petition through which he had challenged an inquiry initiated by NAB against Vision Developers, his housing scheme.
His counsel had argued that the accountability watchdog had opened an inquiry against their housing scheme thrice. Nevertheless, they added, the NAB could not find anything illegal in the project.