A private citizen has moved the Supreme Court on Saturday against the dismissal of his petition by the Islamabad High Court (IHC) seeking the disqualification of former Prime Minister Imran Khan for allegedly not disclosing his daughter, Tyrian Khan White, in his 2018 election nomination papers.
The petitioner, Mohammad Sajid, represented by his lawyer Saad Mumtaz Hashmi, argued that the IHC’s full bench erred in treating the concurring opinions of two judges as a court judgment, despite it being reserved and not formally announced.
Sajid contended that Khan failed to mention Tyrian Khan White when he submitted his nomination papers for the NA-95 Mianwali constituency on June 11, 2018. He only listed his spouse, Bushra Bibi, and his two sons living abroad, Qasim and Sulaiman Khan. This omission, according to Sajid, constitutes furnishing a false affidavit, making Khan liable for disqualification under the 2018 Habib Akram case principle.
The petition highlighted that Tyrian Khan White, born on June 15, 1992, is indeed Khan’s daughter, as confirmed by judicial records in California, USA.
The petitioner had previously brought this issue to the IHC in 2022. A single bench decided on February 2, 2023, to have the case heard by a full bench of three judges, comprising Chief Justice Aamer Farooq, Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani, and Justice Arbab Mohammad Tahir. After hearings, they reserved the judgment on March 30, 2023.
Before the Chief Justice could deliver his opinion, the concurring opinions of the other two judges were uploaded on the IHC’s website, indicating that the petition was dismissed by a majority of two to one.
Chief Justice Farooq subsequently ordered an inquiry and the removal of these opinions from the website, noting they should not have been uploaded before the official judgment announcement. On May 10, 2023, he recused himself from the case, sealing the two judges’ opinions and directing the matter to be decided afresh by a full bench.
The petitioner claimed that the case, fixed before the IHC full bench on May 21, 2024, was dismissed without a fresh hearing. He challenged this dismissal, arguing that the two judges’ opinions did not constitute a binding judgment as per Supreme Court precedents.
Sajid requested the Supreme Court to declare the IHC’s dismissal of his petition “erroneous and liable to be set aside,” maintaining that Khan remains ineligible and disqualified from being elected or holding any public office for misleading the electorate in his 2018 nomination papers, an act not mitigated by his term’s expiration.
