ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) is likely to take up after Eid a petition filed against former prime minister Imran Khan for concealing his alleged daughter Tyrian White, according to court officials.

The matter has been virtually shelved since May 2023, when the IHC chief justice dissolved a three-member bench hea­r­­­ing the case after the opinions of two jud­ges regarding the petition’s maintainability were uploaded on the court’s website.

A three-judge larger bench comprising IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq, Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani, and Jus­tice Arbab Muhammad Tahir had reserved its verdict on March 30, while Justices Kayani and Tahir had opined against the petition’s maintainability,

After the majority judgement was made public, the IHC CJ formed a new bench comprising Justices Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri, Arbab Mohammad Tahir and Saman Rafat Imtiaz.

As per the IHC rules, the senior-most judge presides over the proceedings in a case and the registrar’s office fixes hearings with the presiding judge’s consent.

A senior IHC official told Dawn that the case file was sent to the presiding judge — Justice Jahangiri in this case — last year and he advised the registrar office to keep the matter pending as he was supposed to intimate the date of hearing.

The official added that the matter would be brought into the knowledge of the judge and the case was likely to be fixed for hearing after Eid holidays, starting next week.

Published in Dawn, April 3rd, 2024