MM News

Imran Khan eligible to contest any election, declares IHC

ISLAMABAD: The High Court on Monday passed observations that the disqualification verdict given against PTI Chairman Imran Khan in Toshakhana reference was restricted to the NA seat he was notified as winner in 2018 elections, and it doesn’t bar him from contesting any new polls.

The Islamabad High Court picked up the petition of Imran Khan in which he challenged the ECP’s disqualification verdict against him in Toshakhana reference. Chief Justice Athar Minallah, hearing the plea, asked as to what objections were raised on their petition by court’s registrar.

Also read: KP, Punjab assemblies pass resolutions against Imran’s disqualification

Barrister Ali Zafar said the objections were related to bio-metric verification and submitting attested copy of the ECP verdict, adding that ECP was not providing attested copy to the aggrieved party.

When asked by the court to explain about the urgency of the matter, Barrister Ali Zafar said “we (PTI) had to go into elections in the coming days and were faced with problems due to disqualification issue.”

The court asked the law under which Imran Khan was declared disqualified by the ECP, on which Barrister Ali Zafar said the verdict was given under article 63-1-P. On this occasion, Chief Justice Athar Minallah passed remarks that the disqualification was restricted to the seat on which he was notified as winner in 2018 (Mianwali).

Also read: What does Article 63(1)-P say about disqualification term?

Barrister Ali Zafar requested the IHC to suspend the ECP’s short order on disqualification, on which Chief Justice Athar Minallah asked him to provide the attested copy of that short order. On this, Barrister Ali Zafar said the ECP wasn’t providing them the attested copy.

Chief Justice Athar Minallah said the court wasn’t willing to set a new precedent, adding that nothing will happened in three days. He said the court couldn’t issue Stay Order unless and until an attested copy of the ECP verdict was available.

Islamabad High Court later rejected PTI’s plea to immediately suspend the ECP verdict, and ordered to remove the objections raised by the registrar in three days, adding that the court could be approached if the attested copy of the verdict was available.