Justice Isa unmasks PTI leaders with UK assets.

ISLAMABAD: Justice Qazi Faez Isa, the Supreme Court judge facing a presidential reference for not disclosing his family's assets, turned the tables on the ruling party before the apex court by identifying key PTI leaders who owned properties in the UK - including Special Assistant to the PM on Accountability Shahzad Akbar.

As a 10-judge full court, headed by Justice Umar Ata Bandial, continued hearing the petitions against the reference on Tuesday, Justice Isa in a written statement informed the bench that Akbar owned five properties in the UK, Prime Minister Imran Khan (six), Special Assistant to the PM on Overseas Pakistanis Zulfiqar Bukhari (seven) and Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Youth Affairs Usman Dar has three to his name.

Former federal information minister Firdous Ashiq Awan and PTI stalwart Jahangir Tareen each owned a property there as well. In addition, the judge submitted before the court that former military ruler Gen (r) Pervez Musharraf owned two properties in the UK.

Justice Isa submitted the statement in response to SAPM Akbar telling the court that he did not receive any salary or benefit as the head of the Asset Recovery Unit (ARU).

"Taking a cue from what is stated to have transpired in the case of the petitioner's family, the search engine 192.com was used to search a few known public figures," the statement read.

The judge clarified that was "not saying or suggesting, let alone allege" that the people he had identified had illegally acquired any property in the UK in violation of the income tax, the foreign exchange and/or money laundering laws.

"Before an allegation of non-compliance with income tax law is made, the Federal Board of Revenue must check its records [of these individuals] and consider how much taxable income was declared and income-tax paid and whether they had non-taxable income, such as from agricultural land, which the Constitution exempts from payment of income tax."

Justice Isa further stated that before making an allegation with regard to the illegal transfer of money abroad, the State Bank "must check to determine whether the said individuals had foreign exchange accounts and whether thorough their accounts money was remitted abroad, to exclude the possibility of it sent to the UK through Hawala, Hundi or by any other illegal means".

"And, before making an allegation of money laundering the competent authority must first check if the said individuals had committed a crime and the...