At ECP, PTI has the last laugh

PTI spokesperson demands NA speaker Ayaz Sadiq resigns following ECP's decision

The Election Commission Pakistan on Thursday dismissed references seeking disqualification of two top leaders of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, almost six months after National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq had referred the matter to the top poll supervisory body.

The references against Imran Khan and Jahangir Tareen had been filed by the ruling PML-N in a tit-for-tat move after the PTI and some other parties moved disqualification references against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif after the names of the ruling family appeared in the Panama Papers.

Interestingly, Speaker Ayaz Sadiq had rejected the references against Premier Sharif but forwarded those against Imran and Tareen to the ECP.



Under rules, once a reference against a lawmaker is filed to the speaker’s office, he/she has to take a decision within 60 days. The speaker has to use his mind judiciously either to reject such a reference in his office or in case he feels there are cogent grounds provided by the petitioner, he refers the matter to the ECP, which then has to take a decision within 90 days.

The ECP decision raises a question mark on the speaker’s impartiality. Apart from that, the ECP took almost six months – much longer than the stipulated timeframe given in the law to decide a case.

A five-member ECP bench – headed by Chief Election Commissioner Justice (retd) Sardar Raza Khan – held several hearings in the meantime and castigated both the parties for causing the inordinate delay. Lawyers of one party or the other kept on getting adjournments on one pretext or the other.



Imran said that after the ECP decision, Speaker Ayaz Sadiq had lost the moral authority to stay on in office. “I had submitted a reference with the National Assembly speaker, but he regrettably dismissed it and instead sent to the ECP the PML-N’s references which were filed in a bid to punish us for raising our voice against the Sharif family,” he told journalists. “The speaker in connivance with the Sharif family tried to blackmail me and Jahangir Tareen.”

Imran likened the Sharif-led democracy to a dictatorship. “They filed cases against me. I gave all replies to the ECP in December 2016 and satisfied them by giving evidence and money trail, including sale deeds of my flat and property purchased here,” he added.

He alleged that the PML-N’s lawyer sought adjournments time and again in a bid to drag the proceedings.

“What does morality demand now?” Imran questioned taking a jibe at Ayaz Sadiq. “You are the custodian of parliament, which can only function properly if the speaker stays neutral rather acting as a paid employee of the Sharif family.”

He said the Pakistani institutions responsible for holding Sharif accountable in the backdrop of the Panama revelations were busy scrutinising his and Tareen’s businesses and properties.

Imran added that he has made a vow in the Supreme Court that if any of statements turned out to be untrue he would leave politics for good. “Today, I’m thankful to Allah Almighty for exonerating me from all false allegations.”

Tareen said the ECP had discarded the ‘pointless case’.  “This is another setback for the ‘imperial family’ after the Panamagate,” he told The Express Tribune.