Islamabad, Sep 24 (UNI) The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a petition seeking removal of Prime Minister Imran Khan for not being "truthful" and "righteous".
A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar noted that the petition seeking Mr Khan's disqualification as Member of National Assembly, has become infructuous, as it was filed at a time when Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief was not elected as the Prime Minister.
The court ruled that the petition was filed during the term of the previous National Assembly, which has now completed its tenure.
The petition was filed by Barrister Danyal Chaudhry in May last year soon after the apex court had constituted a six-member Joint Investigation Team (JIT) to probe allegations of corruption against then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, and had been pending before the court since then, the Dawn reported.
The petitioner was seeking a special oath for the JIT members to protect them from getting influenced by the speeches of Mr Khan.
The petitioner, moreover, requested the apex court to restrain Khan from activities which could influence the minds of the JIT members because his speeches and press releases could prejudice the investigation team. The petitioner also feared that if Mr Khan was not stopped from making political statements, it might allegedly result in derailment of democracy.
It recalled that due to the PTI’s 2014 sit-in in Islamabad, the Chinese president had deferred his visit to Pakistan, resulting in jeopardising different projects pertaining to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor because of political uncertainty that negatively impacted the country’s financial markets. The foreign exchange reserves had also declined considerably as a result, it argued.
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