ISLAMABAD    -    Chairman Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) Imran Khan’s counsel Wednes­day adopted the stance before the Is­lamabad High Court (IHC) that the State cannot compel anyone for the DNA test. The counsel submitted this before a larger bench of the IHC headed by Chief Justice of IHC Justice Aamer Farooq and comprising Jus­tice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani and Jus­tice Arbab Tahir during the hearing of a petition seeking disqualification of Khan for concealing his alleged daughter in the nomination papers submitted to contest the 2018 gener­al elections. In this mater, petitioner Sajid Mahmood approached the IHC claiming that although Imran made arrangements for Tyrian White’s up­keep abroad, he did not disclose it in nomination papers and affidavits filed by him for elections.

During the hearing, Khan’s lawyer Salman Akram Raja said while argu­ing the question of admissibility of the petition that this court had dis­missed the same petition in the past.

He added that this matter is relat­ed to that of year 1992 while the af­fidavit was submitted in 2018. The petitioner’s counsel Hamid Shah in­formed the bench that earlier, they had photocopied documents but now, they have brought new attest­ed documents which will be sub­mitted on Thursday (today). Im­ran’s counsel adopted the stance that state cannot compel anyone for the DNA test and in such matters, willingness of the affected person is necessary. He continued that there is no law which permits to carry out forceful DNA test. He maintained that on this single point, this case comes to a dead end. He argued that it is a sponsored petition and prayed to the court that it may dis­miss the same. Later, the bench de­ferred the hearing till Thursday for further proceedings. 

In this matter, the petitioner is seeking disqualification of the PTI chief, an MNA from the NA-95 Mian­wali-I constituency, contending that all candidates contesting elections for either national or provincial as­semblies are required to furnish an affidavit with respect of their cre­dentials and assets.

He said that one such informa­tion is about the children who are dependent on a candidate, and in this connection, Imran had wrong­ly mentioned two children including “Qasim Khan and Sulaiman Khan” and had omitted the third.