PESHAWAR: A Peshawar High Court bench on Thursday issued notice to Prime Minister-in-waiting and PTI chairman Imran Khan over a petition seeking his disqualification from holding any public office on multiple grounds, including the failure to mention his alleged daughter in his nomination papers filed for contesting election in the National Assembly constituency, NA-35, Bannu.

Justice Roohul Amin Khan and Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim also put on notice the Election Commission of Pakistan, which is also a respondent in the petition filed by a candidate in the same constituency, Inamullah Khan, a leader of Pakistan Justice and Democratic Party of former chief justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry.

The bench ordered the respondents, including Imran Khan, to respond to the petition on the next hearing, whose schedule will be announced afterward.

It adjourned proceedings into the case after hearing preliminary arguments of the petitioner’s lawyer, Abdur Rasheed Khan, who contended that the PTI chief had concealed important facts in his nomination papers and therefore, he was not righteous and sagacious in terms of Article 62 and 63 of the Constitution.

Mr Imran Khan had won election in NA-35, Bannu, by defeating former provincial chief minister Akram Khan Durrani and other candidates.

Almost an identical petition has been pending with the Islamabad High Court.

Retired justice Iftikhar Chaudhry had announced before elections that his party would challenge the candidature of Imran Khan in every constituency from where he would contest election.

The counsel for the petitioner said his client had raised important objections before the returning officer for NA-35, Bannu, who had rejected the same and accepted nomination papers of Imran Khan.

He added that the petitioner had also filed appeal with the election appellate tribunal in Bannu but the appeal was turned down prompting him to move the high court for relief.

Abdur Rasheed Khan said the petitioner had annexed important documents, including judgments of courts in the US, about the famous case of Sita White and her daughter Tyrian White, which proved that the latter was daughter of Imran Khan.

He alleged that while Mr Imran had not been admitting in Pakistan that Tyrian White was his daughter, he had admitted that abroad.

The lawyer claimed that in the nomination papers, the PTI chief had only mentioned his two sons and not his daughter.

He added that Mr Imran had also concealed the properties belonging to his current wife, Bushra Bibi, in the nomination papers.

The lawyer said the worth of the Banigala mansion of Mr Imran was only mentioned as Rs11.4 million in nomination papers, which was below its actual value.

He added that even at the time of its purchase, the price of that land was around Rs50 million.

The lawyer requested the bench to declare the acceptance of nomination papers of the PTI chief by the returning officer illegal and declare him disqualified from holding any public office.

Published in Dawn, August 10th, 2018