ISLAMABAD: A day after disqualification by the Supreme Court, Jahangir Tareen on Saturday resigned as secretary general of the 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, adding that he hopes to see Imran as the “Pakistan’s next PM, IA”. In his resignation letter to Imran, Tareen said he is glad he helped PTI become Pakistan’s largest political party. According to Tareen, the ‘standards of scrutiny’ that the PTI leaders faced during the trial were ‘unprecedented’.
Tareen said that the Panama Papers case changed the course of the history. He claimed that the ‘forces of status quo’ filed a ‘malicious case’ against him and Imran, adding that the standards of scrutiny they faced in the Supreme Court were unprecedented.
Calling the petition by PML-N’s Hanif Abbasi ‘malicious’, Tareen in his resignation said that the apex court disqualified him on ‘an interpretation of a legal term’. “It is disappointing that the country’s highest tax paying Parliamentarian stands disqualified on a flimsy technical ground,” he added.
Tareen went on to note that the apex court had, however, rejected four of the allegations levelled against him by the PML-N leader, including misuse of authority to write off loans and the 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.
“Since the highest coup of Pakistan has concluded that I am not qualified to continue as a member of [the] assembly, I bow my head in compliance of that order. I have spent all my life on principles and moral values and I feel that morally, it is not justified for me to continue as secretary general of PTI,” the resignation read.
Meanwhile, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Saturday deferred decision to appoint a fresh secretary general until verdict on review petition over Jahangir Tareen’s disqualification is delivered. His resignation was, however, approved by party chief Imran Khan. During a meeting of the core committee, resignation tendered by Tareen as secretary general of the PTI was approved by Imran Khan. According to a statement issued after the meeting, the party deems Tareen’s decision to resign a dignified act and that there is no comparison to be made of Tareen with ‘godfather’ and corrupt ‘Sicilian mafia’. The party criticised the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) by pointing out that the constitution of Pakistan was amended to re-elect disqualified Nawaz Sharif as the president of the party.
Published in Daily Times, December 17th 2017.
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