ISLAMABAD    -    The Islamabad High Court (IHC) Thursday reserved its verdict over maintain­ability of a petition seek­ing disqualification of Pa­kistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan for concealing his alleged daughter Tyr­ian White.

A larger bench of the IHC headed by Chief Justice Aamer Farooq and com­prising Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani and Justice Arbab Tahir conducted hearing of the petition seeking dis­qualification of Khan for concealing his alleged daughter in the nomination pa­pers submitted to contest the general elections in 2018.

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.

The IHC bench reserved the verdict after hearing the arguments of the pe­titioner’s lawyer Hamid Ali Shah and Khan’s lawyers Salman Akram Raja.

During the hearing, Hamid Shah con­tended that Khan did not declare Tyr­ian White as his daughter in the af­fidavit submitted to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) due to which he cannot hold the position of party chairman.

The IHC chief justice said that ac­cording to the record so far, Khan has neither denied nor accepted anything. He further said that the hearing was being held to decide the maintainabil­ity of the petition.

The petitioner’s lawyers stated that Khan had mentioned his wife Bushra Bibi and two sons Qasim and Suleman in the affidavit. He added that Khan had mentioned that both his sons live with their mother and not financially dependent on him. He continued that the PTI chairman has not disclosed details of his alleged daughter, Tyrian, who was not married and as per Islam­ic laws was dependent on her father fi­nancially.

The bench asked what will happen if the bench decides that the affidavit was false? Hamid Ali Shah responded that in such a case, Khan will be dis­qualified from the position of party head and he cannot become a mem­ber of the national assembly.

The court also enquired about the ECP’s stance in this regard. At this, the ECP’s lawyer said that such petitions have been rejected in the past.

The IHC bench expressed its annoy­ance after the ECP sought the court’s permission to submit documents. The lawyer defended themselves saying that they only wanted to inform the court that they have dismissed this case earlier due to lack of evidence.

Later, the court reserved the judg­ment and deferred the 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.

The petitioner urged the court to summon the former prime minister Imran Khan and inquire about the rea­sons for the violation of Article 62 of the Constitution, which says, “A person shall not be qualified to be elected or chosen as a member of Majlis-e-Shoora (Parliament) unless — he is sagacious, righteous, non-profligate, honest and ameen, there being no declaration to the contrary by a court of law.”