The Lahore High Court (LHC) reserved Thursday its verdict on the maintainability of a petition seeking the removal of Imran Khan as the PTI chief after his disqualification in the Toshakhana reference.

Justice Muhammad Sajid Mehmood Sethi presided over the hearing to decide whether the plea was admissible for further proceedings.

Imran Khan, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), and the federal government have been named as respondents in the petition filed by Muhammad Afaq Advocate.

On October 21, the ECP disqualified the PTI chief in the Toshakhana reference under Article 63(1)(p) and de-notified him as MNA from NA-95.

The petitioner in his petition said that the ECP had disqualified Imran Khan under Article 63(1) of the Constitution, therefore, an order should be issued denotifying Imran Khan as PTI chairman.

The court said that Imran Khan had even contested the recent by-elections. To which the petitioner replied that the commission had not yet issued the notification of disqualification.

“Nawaz Sharif has also been declared disqualified and was removed from the party presidency,” the petition stated adding that there was no legal justification that Imran Khan who had been disqualified should remain the party chairman.

“Under the Political Parties Order (PPO) and its rules a disqualified person cannot head a political party,” he argued and added that Imran Khan was violating the laws by continuing to head the PTI, which was a registered party with the ECP.

The petitioner requested that the court should order the removal of Imran Khan from the party chairmanship and should issue directives for the nomination of a new party head.

Later, after hearing the arguments, the court reserved its decision on the admissibility of the petition.