Imran challenges ban on campaigning

Counsel argues PTI has a record of holding peaceful rallies.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan has approached the Islamabad High Court to challenge three Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) notifications barring members of the national and provincial assemblies from electioneering.

Imran, through his counsel Babar Awan, filed the petition in the IHC on Tuesday and made the ECP and its elections director general respondents in the case.

The counsel said that the petitioner, as chairman of PTI, heads different movements during by-elections and other electoral activities in the country, which is a right guaranteed under Article 16 of the Constitution.



Awan said that Imran and his party has a record of holding peaceful and unarmed rallies, including a 126-day sit-in in the capital, adding that the facts prove that the petitioner and his party believes in the supremacy of the law and Constitution.

To the utter surprise of the petitioner and other democratic forces in the country, Awan said, a number of notifications were issued by the ECP that abridged fundamental rights.

On April 16, 2015, he said, the ECP issued a notification which imposed restrictions on the president, prime minister, ministers of state, governors, chief ministers, provincial ministers and advisers to the PM, and chief ministers from visiting constituencies for electioneering or giving any subscription or donation in constituencies where elections are due.

On May 7, 2015, the notification was further amended to add all members of the National Assembly and provincial assemblies [MNAs and MPAs] to the list.



He said the poll body issued a similar such notification on September 16, 2015.

He added that a PTI member had challenged the May 7 notification and a court had declared the notification without lawful authority and of no legal effect.

Subsequently, the ECP took the matter to the Supreme Court, which revived the notification. The SC, however, he said, did not authorise the ECP to keep issuing such notifications with respect to other constituencies wherein elections are to be held.

On February 6, 2017, the respondents issued a notification to the Imran which, as per the counsel, is wholly illegal on account of visiting constituencies in the province of Punjab.

Babar has maintained that the inclusion of MNAs and MPAs with the president, premier and others is mala fide on the part of the ECP. By no stretch of imagination, he claims, could MNAs and MPAs who do not hold any official or governmental position, fall within the same category or class of those who are in power.

Babar said that it is obvious from the fact that the ECP had only the petitioner - Imran Khan - in mind while issuing the notification because he, perhaps, was the only MNA who, having no governmental or official position, would matter the most with the voters in the by-elections.

He has accused the ECP of abuse of authority, saying the poll body issued a person-specific notification on February 6, adding that it was an act intended to keep the petitioner from electioneering for PTI candidates.

Keeping the men in power out of election campaign is understandable, he said, but MNAs and MPAs do not exercise any such power or financial control, and the decision to exclude them from campaigning has no logic, reason and rationale behind it.



Preventing the petitioner, who is head of a party, he said, from campaigning and addressing public meetings in the area of constituencies where by-elections will take place is a violation of articles 16, 17 and 19 of the Constitution.

Babar said that for all the practical purposes and intents, it is the opposition which is put at disadvantage by the ECP, and the poll body's move has put the men in power at a clear advantage.

He has prayed the court to declare the May 7, 2015, September 16, 2015, and February 6, 2017, notifications, along with any other consequential proceedings pending before the ECP, as illegal, without lawful authority, and of no legal effect.