Tyrian White case: IHC larger bench to hear plea seeking Imran Khan’s disqualification

• Imran Khan provided incorrect information to ECP, says petitioner.
• PTI chief concealed his alleged daughter Tyrian Jade White in his nomination papers for 2018 elections.
• Applicant pleads with court to disqualify Khan under Article 62(i)(f) of Constitution.

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday constituted a three-member larger bench to hear a plea seeking disqualification of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan for concealing information regarding his alleged daughter Tyrian Jade White in his nomination papers for the 2018 elections.

The three-judge bench, headed by IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq and comprising Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani and Justice Arbab Muhammad Tahir, will take up the petition on Thursday (February 9).

In his petition, Mohammad Sajid — a citizen — said that Imran Khan provided incorrect information while submitting his nomination papers for the general elections held in 2018. The petitioner also said that even though the former prime minister has three children, he had mentioned only two in the papers and concealed the existence of his third child.

He also pleaded with the court to disqualify Khan under Article 62(i)(f) of the constitution.

It is pertinent to mention here that the IHC decided to shift the case to the larger bench after objections were raised against the single-member bench.

On February 1, the PTI chairman filed a plea to dismiss the disqualification petition against him submitted in the IHC for "hiding" his alleged daughter in the nomination papers.

The response stated that the IHC’s four judges had previously excused themselves from hearing the matter.

According to the petition, the former prime minister no longer holds office as a member of the National Assembly, which is why the application is not admissible. Within the Constitutional jurisdiction, the federal capital’s top court cannot review any affidavit of Khan, the petition states.

In the written reply, the deposed prime minister — whose government was ousted in April last year following a no-confidence motion — did not respond to any of the allegations levelled in the petition regarding him being Tyrian’s father.

Khan neither confirmed nor denied being her father. He instead raised an indirect objection to the serving chief justice hearing the case.

The incumbent top judge of the IHC had also earlier excused from hearing the case on August 1, 2018. "A judge who has previously excused himself from a case cannot hear it again," Khan had raised the objection in his preliminary written response submitted in the court.