Contempt case: Imran again fails to submit reply

ECP sets July 4 deadline for submission

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan once again failed to submit his reply before the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in a contempt case against him.



A five-member bench of the ECP headed by Chief Election Commissioner Sardar Raza Khan took up the case on Monday.

The PTI counsel took the plea that Imran’s reply is ready for his signatures, but because of his busy schedule and visit to Karachi, he could not sign on it. The ECP directed the counsel to submit a reply by July 4.

The contempt proceedings started after Imran alleged in a review application filed on January 9, 2017 that the ECP was politically biased and in league with the petitioner for demanding submission and scrutiny of PTI accounts under the foreign funding case.



PTI’s founding member Akbar S Babar, who later parted ways with Imran, had filed a petition in the ECP seeking audit of party’s accounts in 2014. That case is also pending.

The ECP in its order of January 16, 2017 had rejected PTI’s allegations of bias and took strong exception to it use of false remarks against a constitutional institution.

The order had stated that “no civilised person is expected to malign constitutional institutions in the manner in which it is so done.”