PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Monday issued a detailed judgment in petitions filed against the disqualification of Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) Chairman Sahibzada Hamid Raza and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leaders Rai Haider Ali, Rai Hassan Khan, Rai Murtaza and Rai Ansar, declaring that the matter fell outside its jurisdiction.
The 15-page verdict was authored by Justice Muhammad Ijaz Khan, while the petitions were heard by a two-member bench comprising Justice Waqar Ahmad and Justice Ijaz Sabih.
According to the judgment, the petitions were returned with directions to approach the Lahore High Court or Islamabad High Court.The court noted that on July 31, 2024, an Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) in Faisalabad convicted the petitioners.After the conviction, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) disqualified them from the assemblies on August 5.The disqualified leaders had challenged the ECP’s decision in the PHC.
During the hearings, the ECP’s law officer and the additional attorney general raised objections regarding the court’s jurisdiction.They argued that since the petitioners belonged to Punjab, were convicted by Faisalabad’s ATC, and were disqualified by the ECP’s principal office in Islamabad, the PHC lacked jurisdiction under the Constitution.
The judgment cited Articles 175, 185–190, and 192–203 of the Constitution, which defined the establishment, powers, and jurisdiction of the Supreme Court and the high courts. It also referred to the 1970 Presidential Ordinance on the establishment of high courts, which clarified that no high court could intervene in another’s territorial jurisdiction.
The court observed that in this case, neither the conviction nor the disqualification orders originated within Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Therefore, the petitions did not fall within the PHC’s territorial jurisdiction.
The petitioners’ counsel had cited several precedents, including Asghar Hussain vs Election Commission (PLD 1968 SC 387), but the bench held that those cases were not relevant to the present matter.
The counsel argued that relief had been granted in similar petitions of PTI leaders including Omar Ayub, Shibli Faraz and Zartaj Gul. However, the court noted that Ayub and Faraz belonged to KP, while no jurisdictional objection had been raised in Zartaj Gul’s case at the time.
Upholding the objections raised by the federation and the ECP, the PHC ordered the return of the petitions, directing the disqualified leaders to approach the Lahore High Court or Islamabad High Court for relief.
