A day after being disqualified by the Supreme Court, Jahangir Tareen on Saturday resigned as the general secretary of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).
"I have resigned as SG [secretary general] of PTI. Will remain part of the struggle," said Tareen as he announced his resignation on Twitter. "Hoping to see Imran Khan as Pakistan’s next PM."
PTI chief Imran Khan, who flew back to Islamabad from Karachi today, met Tareen on his return. Soon after the meeting, Tareen shared the news of his resignation. The PTI core committee is also expected to meet today. The resignation has yet to be accepted by the party chief.
The Supreme Court on Friday had handed down its much-awaited judgement in the petitions against Imran Khan and Jahangir Tareen. While the petition against Khan was dismissed, the bench disqualified Tareen for life after finding him to be dishonest under Article 62(1)(f) of the Constitution and Section 99 of Representation of People Act (ROPA) on one count among the multiple charges brought against him.
"The respondent [Tareen] is disqualified in terms of Article 62(1)(f) of the Constitution read with Section 99(1)(f) of ROPA for the non-declaration of his property/asset i.e. 'Hyde House' in his nomination papers, and in making untrue statement before this Court, that he has no beneficial interest in SVL [offshore company]; therefore, he should cease to hold the office as the member of the National Assembly with immediate effect," said the apex court's judgement.
Hours after the SC's decision, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) denotified the PTI leader from his NA-154 (Lodhran) seat.
I have resigned as SG of Pakistan Tehrik e Insaf . Will remain part of the struggle. Hoping to see Imran Khan as Pakistan’s next PM , IA pic.twitter.com/mqgoFevRFN
— Jahangir Khan Tareen (@JahangirKTareen) December 16, 2017
Tareen, in a tweet on Friday, said that the court had disqualified him on a "mere interpretation of the trust deed". He was referring to a trust deed that names Tareen as a settler and was used to buy property in the UK.
Tareen went on to note that the apex court had rejected four of the allegations levelled against him by the PML-N leader, including misuse of authority to write off loans and insider trading.
The tweet also noted that the court had accepted the money trail provided by Tareen for his property in London and that it had rejected the allegation that he had mis-declared his agricultural income.
