Pak SC objected to dismissal of plea seeking disqualification of Imran Khan for concealing alleged name of his daughter | World News

Islamabad, A petition has been filed in the Supreme Court of Pakistan against the dismissal of a plea seeking disqualification of former Prime Minister Imran Khan for hiding his alleged daughter Tyrian White while submitting his election nomination papers general elections of 2018.

The Islamabad High Court rejected the petition last month.

The petition claimed that the 71-year-old Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party founder failed to disclose his alleged daughter – Tyrian White – in his nomination papers for the 2018 general elections.

Khan's PTI party won the 2018 general elections and the former cricketer turned politician served as Prime Minister of Pakistan from August 2018 to April 2022.

The IHC rejected the petition after noting that a three-judge court had previously rejected it.

Judge Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri read the two judges' opinion issued last year and ruled that the case had already been dismissed.

The petitioner, Mohammad Sajid, through his lawyer Saad Mumtaz Hashmi, approached the Supreme Court on Saturday, arguing that all the judges of the IHC erred in considering the concurring opinion of two of the three judges as a court judgment.

According to the petitioner, Khan did not mention the existence of his alleged daughter when he filed his nomination to contest elections from Mianwali constituency and only provided details of his wife, Bushra Bibi, and her two sons living abroad, namely Qasim Khan. and Sulaiman Khan.

The petitioner said that since Khan had provided a false affidavit, he faced disqualification.

The petition claimed that it was undeniable that White, born June 15, 1992, was Khan's real daughter after her paternity was confirmed by court records in the courts of California, United States.

A single panel in charge of the case decided on February 2, 2023 that the case would be heard by a plenary panel composed of three judges. After this, the case was taken up by IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq, Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani and Justice Arbab Mohammad Tahir. After the hearing, they reserved judgment for March 30, 2023.

However, before the chief justice could give his opinion, the concurring opinion of two other judges was posted on the IHC website, mentioning that the petition had been rejected by a majority of two against one.

The CJ then ordered an investigation and ordered the removal of the two judges' concurring opinion from the website as it could not have been uploaded before the case was set for announcement of judgment.

Later, on May 10, 2023, the Chief Justice decided to recuse himself from hearing the case and ordered that “the opinion of both justices be sealed” and ordered that the matter be resolved before a full bench to “resolve the matter again”.

The petitioner claimed that the petition was scheduled before the full bench of the IHC on May 21, 2024, but the court, rather than hearing the matter again, dismissed the petition.

Challenging the dismissal of his petition instead of hearing it again, the petitioner argued that the opinion of two judges uploaded on the site did not constitute a judgment under the law declared by the Supreme Court in several verdicts.

The full body of IHC judges was not bound by the two judges' concurring opinion expressed in the previous round of hearings on the motion, he said.

This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modification to the text.