LAHORE: Justice Khalid Ishaq of the Lahore High Court on Thursday recused himself from two separate petitions – one by the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) chief Sahibzada Hamid Raza and the other by the PTI’s former MPA Junaid Afzal Sahi.

The judge, citing personal reasons, sent both petitions to the chief justice with a request to fix them before any other appropriate bench.

The SIC chief had challenged the Nov 23 by-election schedule for the National Assembly constituency, NA-104, Faisalabad, from where he is contesting.

The petitioner’s counsel, Bassam Ahmad Siddiqui, stated that Raza had been elected from NA-104 in the 2024 general election but was later disqualified following his conviction in a case related to May 9, 2023, riots.

He argued that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) directly notified the disqualification of the petitioner without a reference sent by the National Assembly speaker, as required by law.

The lawyer asked the court to declare the by-election schedule null and void.

Islamabad police had last week arrested Sahibzada Raza and presented him before a Faisalabad anti-terrorism court, which sent him to jail to serve his 10-year jail term in the May 9 case. The SIC chief was convicted in the case along with several PTI leaders on July 31.

In the other petition, Junaid Sahi had challenged his disqualification as a member of the Punjab Assembly, following his conviction in a May 9 case by a Faisalabad ATC. The petition says the ECP had no power to disqualify a parliamentarian without affording him an opportunity for hearing.

Published in Dawn, November 14th, 2025