Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Monday reiterated that issue of payment to Jemima Goldsmith for purchasing Banigala land falls under privileged communication which has nothing to do with disclosure of the transactions between a husband and a wife.
Filing a concise statement before the Supreme Court a day before the hearing of PML-N leader Hanif Abbasi's plea seeking disqualification of Imran Khan and Secretary General Jahangir Tareen over non-declaration of their offshore companies in nomination papers, Khan submitted that he had never changed his position about Banigala residence.
Counsel for Imran Khan said that payment to Jemima by Imran Khan was a matter between husband and wife, not declarable to any authority because prior to June 30, 2003 and during July 1, 2002 the issue had been settled between the couple, leaving nothing to declare to any authority, including the ECP.
Senior Advocate Syed Naeem Bokhari submitted that the entire sale price of the Banigala land had been remitted by Jemima and consequently all the mutations of the land were recorded in the revenue department in her name.
He said that the use of expression Benami in the General Power of Attorney is a misnomer, as the entries in the revenue record show all mutations in the name of Jemima Khan. Bokhari told that the purchase price was actually funded by Jemima Khan on of the dates of payments to the seller.
"The document read as a whole does not establish either that it was a sham transaction or a Benami," the counsel for Khan submitted. Bokhari further said that the underlying intent of that document was to return the property, after the divorce to Imran Khan which Jemima Khan didn't wish to retain, adding that Imran Khan has attached the maximum documents available to him. Khan's counsel said that in compliance with the orders of the apex court, his client is placing the original record in a separate sealed envelope before the court. A three-judge bench led by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar will resume hearing of the matter on September 26 (Tuesday).