ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) Justice Mohammad Anwar Khan Kasi on Friday rejected the plea of PTI chairman Imran Khan seeking constitution of larger bench to decide his disqualification reference.

The PTI chairman’s counsel, Dr Babar Awan, moved the application before the single member bench comprising Justice Aamer Farooq to constitute a larger bench to hear petition challenging the jurisdiction of Election Commission of Pakistan to hear his disqualification reference after the lapse of prescribed time limit.

Justice Farooq referred this matter to the IHC chief justice for making a decision.

According to the petitioner, speaker National Assembly under Article 63(2) could forward a disqualification reference to the ECP within 30 days while under Article 63(3) “The Election Commission shall decide the question within 90 days after its receipt”.

This reference was filed with the National Assembly speaker by the PML-N MNAs seeking disqualification of Imran Khan. The speaker had then referred the matter to the ECP for a decision.

After dismissal of the plea, the main petition of Khan would be placed before single member bench comprising Justice Farooq, a court official said.

Published in Dawn, February 25th, 2017