ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Power Khurram Dastgir has accused Imran Khan of failing to meet the criteria of ‘Sadiq and Ameen’ issued by the Supreme Court in the Hanif Abbasi case. Sedition has been ongoing in the country since 2014 and has been exposed with foreign lobbies and money working behind the scenes.

He was addressing a press conference along with JUI (F) leader Senator Kamran Murtaza, after the announcement of the verdict by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in PTI foreign funding case.

He said, according to the ECP verdict, PTI received remittances from Europe, Australia and other countries, adding that Pakistani law does not allow any political party to receive foreign funding.

He said, now the federal government has to send a reference against Imran Khan to the Supreme Court according to Article 17 of the Constitution and it is more important that the SC should constitute full bench to hear the petition. He said, the competent forum had not determined the facts about Imran Khan at the time of the verdict announced in Hanif Abbasi case but now the ECP has determined the facts in PTI funding case.

“The competent forum has established the case, now the Federal Government has to file the case with the SC which is why it is more important for the apex court to constitute a full bench to hear it,” he added.

Khurram Dastgir Khan argued that there should be broad based combined thoughtful process in the apex court to hear such political cases instead of by a bench of limited thinking and if the latter happens, PML( N) will continue to have its reservations. He said, PML (N) approaches SC in the hope that it would get justice.

In reply to a question, the Minister said that all the concerned stakeholders are going through the verdict of ECP, which came after eight years, adding that all possible applicable articles of constitution would be applied.

“We will try to sort out this case as early as possible as we have to safeguard the Constitution of Pakistan,” Dastgir added.

Senator Kamran Murtaza said that PTI as a political party should be dissolved as prohibited funding has been proved in the long-awaited verdict of Election Commission of Pakistan. He urged the Federal Government to take action as per relevant article of the Constitution otherwise history will not forgive the government.

He maintained that since Election Commission has announced its verdict in PTI Funding case, now the Supreme Court of Pakistan should also review its judgement with respect to declaring Imran Khan ‘Sadiq and Ameen’ in Hanif Abbasi case.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022