A petition has been filed in the Lahore High Court (LHC) for removing Imran Khan from the office of the chairman Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). Advocate Muhammad Afaq filed the petition and impleaded the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), federal government and others as respondents. The petitioner submitted that the ECP had disqualified Imran Khan and he had no legal standing to continue as the PTI chairman. He requested the court to issue directions for removing Imran Khan from the office of PTI chairman and order the party to appoint a new chairman. It argued that according to the Representation of the People Act 1976 and Political Parties Order (PPO) 2002 it was a legal and constitutional requirement for party officeholders to be qualified in accordance with Articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution. The petition said that after Imran’s disqualification from the NA-95 constituency it was “just” for him to be denotified as the PTI chairman and an order should be issued to this effect.
It added that Imran did not have the right to continue holding the party chief office as it was a violation of the PPO. The petition also demanded that the ECP chairman should give orders for a new PTI chairman to be appointed.
A single bench, comprising Justice SajidMehmoodSethi, will hear the petition on November 3 as an urgent case.
On October 21, 2022, the ECP had declared Imran Khan guilty of corrupt practices and disqualified him from being a member of the parliament in the Toshakhana case. However, Imran Khan challenged his disqualification in the Islamabad High Court.
