LAHORE: Justice Chaudhry Muhammad Iqbal of the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Monday recused himself from two separate petitions of Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) chief Sahibzada Hamid Raza and PTI’s former MPA Junaid Afzal Sahi.

The judge refused to hear the pleas, citing personal reasons and sent them to the chief justice with a request to fix them before any other appropriate bench.

Last week, Justice Khalid Ishaq had also recused himself from the same petitions, which were later fixed before Justice Iqbal.

The SIC chief challenged the by-election schedule for his constituency, NA-104.

The petitioner’s counsel, Bassam Ahmad Siddiqui, stated that Sahibzada Raza had been elected from NA-104 in the 2024 general election. He said the petitioner was disqualified following his conviction in a case related to May 9 attacks. He argued that the ECP had directly notified the disqualification of the petitioner without a reference by the National Assembly speaker as required by law.

The lawyer asked the court to declare the by-election schedule null and void.

Islamabad police had last week arrested Sahibzada Raza and presented before a Faisalabad anti-terrorism court, which sent him to jail to serve his 10-year jail term in the May 9 case. The SIC chief was convicted in the case along with several PTI leaders on July 31.

Junaid Sahi challenged his disqualification as a member of the Punjab Assembly, following conviction in a May 9 attack by a Faisalabad anti-terrorism court. The petition said the ECP had no power to disqualify a parliamentarian without affording him an opportunity of hearing.

Published in Dawn, November 18th, 2025