ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court has accepted for hearing the appeal of a PTI leader challenging the return of his petition seeking disqualification of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for allegedly misleading the National Assembly.

The appeal was heard on Friday by Chief Justice Nasirul-Mulk in his chambers, said Advocate Irfan Qadir, the counsel for PTFs central committee leader Ishaq Khan Khakwani who had filed the petition.

He told Dawn that the chief justice had set aside the court registrar`s decision of returning the petition and ordered that the case be fixed in an open court next week.

The court office had returned the petition on Sept 90n the groundsthatnone of the fundamental rights of the petitioner had been violated and that the mover had no locus standi to file the petition. Besides, it said, the Supreme Court was not the right forum for redressingthe grievance and, therefore, the petitioner should approach a proper forum.

The court office also said that since the prime minister enjoyed immunity under Article 248 of the Constitution he could not be impleaded as a party in the case.

In his petition, Mr Khakwani said the prime minister had stated in the National Assembly on Aug 29 that he had asked Chief of the Army Staff Gen Raheel Sharif to act as a mediator and guarantor between the government and PTI Chairman Imran Khan and Pakistan Awami Tehreek chief Dr Tahirul Qadri for ending the political impasse.

Consequently, he said, the army chief had separately met the two protesting leaders who insisted that they would not back down from their demand for the prime minister`s resignation.

The petition said that when the prime minister realised that his plan had failed and the move was not welcomed by certain political quarters, he denied in the assembly that he had ever asked the army chief to mediate and stated that the army was dealing with such issues without the government desiring it to do so.

By making two different statements, it alleged, MrSharif tried to malign and damage the fair image of the army in violation of Article 62 (g) of the Constitution.

The petition said an army spokesman had confirmed that it was the government which had asked the army chief to play a role in ending the standoff.

This established that Nawaz Sharif had made a false statement concerning the army chief and, therefore, was liable to be proceeded against under Article 62 (f) of the Constitution, it argued. The article deals with the qualification of a person from becoming a parllamentarian if he is not sagaclous, righteous, honest and Ameen.

In his appeal against the decision of returning the petition, Mr Khakwani said the registrar`s office had no authority to decide whether or not the petition could be entertained. `The question of maintainability of a petition is to be decided by the Supreme Court in terms of Article 184(3) of the Constitution,` he said, adding that in the instant matter the registrar had assumed upon himself the functions of the Supreme Court without citing any specific rule.

The appeal argued that the court office`s order was devoid of grounds or legal foundations.