LAHORE: The Lahore High Court’s Chief Justice Muhammad Ameer Bhatti on Tuesday constituted a larger bench to decide a petition filed by Chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Imran Khan against the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for barring him from heading his party following his disqualification from the National Assembly constituency of NA-95 (Mianwali).

The chief justice constituted a bench headed by Justice Shahid Bilal Hassan and also comprising Justice Shams Mahmood Mirza, Justice Shahid Karim, Justice Shehram Sarwar Chaudhry and Justice Jawad Hassan.

The single bench had already restrained the ECP from taking any adverse action against Imran Khan in proceedings to debar him from heading the party following his disqualification from National Assembly constituency NA-95, in the Toshakhana reference.

Imran Khan through his counsel challenged the assumption of jurisdiction by the ECP through the issuance of the impugned order and the notice. He argued that the ECP cannot 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 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.

He urged the court to hold that the findings of the ECP against the petitioner of making false statements about his assets and liabilities and subsequent disqualification were unlawful and without lawful authority.

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

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023