The Islamabad High Court (IHC) to hear a petition seeking disqualification of Prime Minister Imran Khan under the Article 62(1)(f) of Constitution today (Thursday). A division bench of IHC comprising Chief Justice IHC Athar Minallah and Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb on Wednesday accepted the application of Chairman Defence of Pakistan Hafiz Ehtisham Ahmad to hear his petition against Imran Khan from today (Thursday).
The court directed the petitioner to be present in the court on Thursday for arguments over maintainability. The matter has been pending before the court without any hearing since August 16, 2018 after a two-member bench comprising then IHC judge Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui and Justice Athar Minallah was dissolved when Justice Athar Minallah had rescued himself from hearing the case on personal reasons.
He had said that at some stage, he was associated with the former Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. He said that he could not sit in the bench as a member of ex-CJP's political party [Justice and Democratic Party (JDP)] had filed the petition in this matter.
Abdul Wahab Baloch and a citizen Hafiz Ehtesham have filed the petitions against Imran Khan, praying to bar the PTI chief from taking PM oath as he is not Sadiq (truthful) and Ameen (honest) under the Article 62(1)(f) of Constitution for not mentioning his illegitimate daughter in his nomination papers. Later Abdul Wahab withdrew his petition since he had joined PTI. Therefore, Ehtesham approached the court again for constitution of a dual bench to hear the matter.