Intra-party elections: SC seeks ECP statement over access to data server

The apex court reviews PTI petition against IHC’s Nov 2015 order

ISLAMABAD: The top court has sought concise statement from Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) over Pakistan Tehreek-i- Insaf (PTI) plea, seeking access to the data server of the commission to prepare credible voter lists for the upcoming intra-party elections (IPEs).

The three-judge bench of the apex court, headed by Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, took up Thursday PTI chief election commissioner Tasneem Noorani’s petition against Islamabad High Court’s November 16, 2015 order, wherein the party’s petition was dismissed.

The petitioner requested the Supreme Court to direct the ECP to grant access to the server for data verification of party members and provide a soft copy of voter details, available on 8300.

Senior counsel Hamid Khan appeared on behalf of PTI before the bench. The petition states that PTI election body decided to register members through their cell phones, on ‘one phone one vote’ basis, by asking them to submit their names and CNIC numbers.

The data will be received through a new telephone short code (9008) allotted to the PTI by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, he said. The party needed members’ particulars, including census code, from the existing service of ECP through 8300, it added.

The problem in the scheme was the cumbersome and time-consuming process of getting the data of each member from 8300 code as SMS modems have speed limitations.

Therefore, the petitioner requested access to the service en masse, so as to prepare credible voter lists before the elections, but all requests were turned down, says the petition.

The petition stated that the PTI is the only political party, which has conducted intra-party elections within every four years as laid down in Article 11 of the Political Parties Order 2002.

It is further stated that the petitioner had met secretary ECP twice on the same issue but his request was declined.

The petition contends that all political parties and their members have a right to seek information of public importance from any constitutional body including ECP under Article 19-A of the constitution. It further says that the information about the registration of voters and their particulars is in the domain of public importance and cannot be denied.

The petition says that by refusing to furnish such information to PTI, the ECP has violated the fundamental right of information to the PTI and its members.

After hearing the arguments of the counsel, the court directed the ECP to file a concise statement on the same matter within three weeks.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 22^nd,  2016.