ISLAMABAD – The Secretary General of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Jahangir Tareen can also come under the axe of Supreme Court leading to his immediate disqualification as a legislator.
This was revealed by veteran journalist Amir Mateen who claimed that the PTI leader got his loans written off through his cousin Haroon Akhter in flagrant contradiction of article 63 (n) of the Constitution.
The aforementioned article clearly implies that a person shall be disqualified from being elected or chosen as, and from being, a member of the Majlis-e-Shoora (Parliament), if he has obtained a loan for an amount of two million rupees or more, from any bank, financial institution, cooperative society or cooperative body in his own name or in the name of his spouse or any of his dependents, which remains unpaid for more than one year from the due date, or has got such loan written off.
Citing the constitutional article, the journalist put forth another document submitted by the State Bank of Pakistan to Senate in which it was mentioned that Jahangir Tareen along with his cousins including Ghazi Akhter, Haroon Akhter, Makhdoom Ahmed Saeed and others had got the loans worth Rs247.587 million written off for their Superior Textile Mills.
The document by State Bank also suggests that Jahangir Tareen also ‘availed the same facility’ for his Tandlianwala Sugar Mills to the tune of Rs 100 million.
It bears mentioning that the list of those who got their loans written off includes legislators from almost all the political parties including Pervaiz Malik, Shaista Malik, Abdul Qadir Baloch of PML -N, Fehmida Mirza, Zulfiqar Mirza of PPP and surprisingly Shereen Mazari of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf as well.
Apart from the document of State Bank and observation of the journalist, the former finance minister Ishaq Dar also blew the lid off those who did not pay their loans.
Replying to the questions in the Senate during the question-hour asked by PTI’s Muhammad Azam Swati and Nisar Muhammad of the PML-N back in July 2016, Dar confirmed the statistics regarding Jahangir Tareen’s written off loans for both Superior Textile Mills Ltd and Tandlianwala Sugar Mills.
Apart from Tareen, another outspoken leader of cricketer-turned-politician’s party, Shereen Mazari was also among the ones who did not pay their loans.
‘Rs51.528 million loan of Sadiqabad Textile Mills Ltd was also written off. Sardar Wali Mazari and Mst Shereen Mazari are among directors and partners of the mills’ the reply said.
Ishaq Dar, a member of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz also stated that one of his party members, Lt-Gen (r) Abdul Qadir Baloch also got Rs120 million loans written off in the name of Indus Steel Pipes for which he served as director and partner.
The reply also confirmed that former NA Speaker Dr Fehmida Mirza and her spouse Dr Zulfiqar Mirza were among the directors and partners of Mirza Sugar Mills, having gotten Rs370.200 million loans written off.
Not only that, Khalil Jute Mills of Ghulam Dastagir Khan and Ghulam Rabbani Khar and others also ‘availed this facility’ and got Rs405.666 million loans written off.
In view of the apparently irrefutable evidence, the above-said legislators violated article 63 (n) of the Constitution and in case anyone moves court against Jahangir Tareen and others, it would be difficult to retain status as a law maker.
On the other hand, Tareen denied getting any relief in terms of loans and accused the media cell of the Prime Minister House of running false stories about him.
In April, last year the PTI bigwig claimed that he took part in elections in 2002, 2008, 2013 and 2015 but no one challenged his election on these issues.
Regarding the letter issued by State Bank, the law maker replied that it was taken back by the issuing authority with an apology back in 2013.
