LAHORE: Lahore High Court (LHC) Chief Justice Muhammad Ameer Bhatti on Tuesday constituted a five-member larger bench to decide the petition filed by PTI Chairman Imran Khan against the proceedings of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to debar him from heading his party.

Last week, a single bench, comprising Justice Jawad Hassan, had recommended to the chief justice to form a larger bench on the matter.

The CJ constituted the larger bench headed by Justice Shahid Bilal Hassan and comprising Justice Shams Mahmood Mirza, Justice Shahid Karim, Justice Shehram Sarwar Chaudhry and Justice Jawad Hassan. The cause list of the larger bench is yet to be issued.

In this case, the single bench had already restrained the ECP from taking adverse action against Imran Khan in proceedings to debar him from heading the party following his disqualification from NA-95 (Mianwali-1) constituency for allegedly filing incorrect statements of assets.

The ECP had started the proceedings against Mr Khan after disqualifying him from his Mianwali seat in the Toshakhana reference. Mr Khan, through Barrister Syed Ali Zafar, had challenged the assumption of jurisdiction by the ECP through the issuance of the impugned order and the notice.

He sought the interpretation of articles 218(3) and 219, read with articles 4 and 5 of the Constitution and sections 8(c) and 9 of the Election Act in the light of Article 62(f) of the Constitution. The lawyer pointed out that a reference against Mr Khan was submitted before the NA speaker who sent it to the ECP to decide the matter.

The counsel maintained that the pivotal point involved in this case was whether the ECP could pass any declaration, which was not mentioned under Article 218(3).

It argues that the ECP could not issue the impugned notice to the petitioner since it never made a declaration against him under the article 62(1)(f) of the Constitution.

He asked the court to declare the notice issued to the petitioner illegal and unconstitutional.

Published in Dawn, January 18th, 2023