Judge recuses himself from hearing plea for Imran's disqualification

ISLAMABAD: Justice Athar Minallah of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday refused to proceed with a petition seeking disqualification of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief and prime minister-in-waiting Imran Khan.

A division bench comprising Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui and Justice Athar Minallah was constituted to hear a petition filed by Abdul Wahab Baloch, secretary general of the Pakistan Justice and Democratic Party (JDP) , seeking disqualification of Khan under Article 62 of the Constitution over the Sita White case.

At the outset of the hearing, Justice Minallah said he had had close ties with former chief justice Itikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, who heads the JDP, and therefore, he can’t hear the case.

After the judge recuse himself from hearing, the matter was referred to the IHC chief justice for constitution of another bench.

In the petition, Mr Baloch argued that Mr. Khan didn’t disclose details about his alleged daughter Tyrian from Sita White in his nomination papers for the 2018 general elections.

He, therefore, doesn’t fulfill the requirement of Article 62 and 63 of the Constitution and is ineligible to be a member of Parliament.

It is pertinent to mention here that the petitioner had challenged the PTI chief’s candidature at different forums before the elections which concluded last week, but his legal challenges were rejected.

In an interview, former Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhary, who is now the president of the Pakistan Justice and Democratic Party, had claimed that he has evidence to show that Khan has admitted to being the father of Tyrian White while abroad, but denies the same in Pakistan.