Petition filed: PTI intra-party polls challenged in ECP
Election watchdog also gives PTI till July 10 to submit financial details
PTI Chief Imran Khan. PHOTO: ONLINE
ISLAMABAD:
Already striving to straighten out its financial statements, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has now been dragged by its former worker to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) over the authenticity of intra-party polls which re-elected Imran Khan as chairman.
Former PTI secretary general of Swabi district Yousaf Ali on Thursday filed a petition before the ECP against PTI asking it to declare intra-party polls, the party organised this month, null and void and order re-polling under the supervision of the election watchdog.
The petitioner said, “Intra-party elections were held in sheer violation of party’s constitution,” which he claimed was ‘fraudulently’ amended to get the desired results. The new amendments in the party’s constitution disfranchised the PTI members from exercising their right of electing their leadership from the Union Council to the federal level.
ECP to hold re-election if women barred from voting
According to him, only the national council of PTI had the powers to amend the party constitution and that too required two-thirds vote in favour of an amendment after adopting a laid-down procedure which was not followed.
The petitioner made Senator Azam Swati, who acted as Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) for the polls, respondent in the case.
He said Swati had previously been found guilty of buying votes in the last intra-party elections.
A subsequent inquiry committee headed by General (retd) Ali Kuli Khan barred the senator from holding any central position in the party.
Nawaz gets clean chit from ECP
ECP gives PTI till July 10 to submit financial details
While hearing another ongoing case, the ECP on Thursday ordered the PTI to submit financial documents of over two years till July 10 or face legal consequences for non-compliance of orders.
The order was passed when a four-member bench of the ECP, headed by the CEC Justice (retd) Mohammad Raza Khan, heard the foreign funding case.
The PTI lawyer again requested adjournment on the grounds that a similar case was before the Supreme Court. He also stressed that the party had filed a writ petition before the Islamabad High Court (IHC) to suspend proceedings of the foreign funding case in the ECP by declaring its order of May 8, 2017 exercising jurisdiction over the case as null and void.
The CEC stated that there was no restraining order from either the Supreme Court or the IHC to suspend proceedings in the ECP. He said the case was in litigation since long and the PTI must submit its financial records sought through repeated orders.
Furthermore, Syed Ahmed Hasan, the counsel for the petitioner former PTI vice president Akbar S Baber, argued that the PTI had made it a pattern to request delays and adjournments on one lame excuse or the other.
Requesting the ECP to take notice of PTI’s delaying tactics, he said in the absence of any restraining order from the Supreme Court or the IHC, the case should proceed.
Rejecting the repeated requests of the PTI’s lawyer to adjourn hearing till the middle of August, the CEC ordered that the case would come up for arguments on July 10.
Already striving to straighten out its financial statements, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has now been dragged by its former worker to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) over the authenticity of intra-party polls which re-elected Imran Khan as chairman.
Former PTI secretary general of Swabi district Yousaf Ali on Thursday filed a petition before the ECP against PTI asking it to declare intra-party polls, the party organised this month, null and void and order re-polling under the supervision of the election watchdog.
The petitioner said, “Intra-party elections were held in sheer violation of party’s constitution,” which he claimed was ‘fraudulently’ amended to get the desired results. The new amendments in the party’s constitution disfranchised the PTI members from exercising their right of electing their leadership from the Union Council to the federal level.
ECP to hold re-election if women barred from voting
According to him, only the national council of PTI had the powers to amend the party constitution and that too required two-thirds vote in favour of an amendment after adopting a laid-down procedure which was not followed.
The petitioner made Senator Azam Swati, who acted as Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) for the polls, respondent in the case.
He said Swati had previously been found guilty of buying votes in the last intra-party elections.
A subsequent inquiry committee headed by General (retd) Ali Kuli Khan barred the senator from holding any central position in the party.
Nawaz gets clean chit from ECP
ECP gives PTI till July 10 to submit financial details
While hearing another ongoing case, the ECP on Thursday ordered the PTI to submit financial documents of over two years till July 10 or face legal consequences for non-compliance of orders.
The order was passed when a four-member bench of the ECP, headed by the CEC Justice (retd) Mohammad Raza Khan, heard the foreign funding case.
The PTI lawyer again requested adjournment on the grounds that a similar case was before the Supreme Court. He also stressed that the party had filed a writ petition before the Islamabad High Court (IHC) to suspend proceedings of the foreign funding case in the ECP by declaring its order of May 8, 2017 exercising jurisdiction over the case as null and void.
The CEC stated that there was no restraining order from either the Supreme Court or the IHC to suspend proceedings in the ECP. He said the case was in litigation since long and the PTI must submit its financial records sought through repeated orders.
Furthermore, Syed Ahmed Hasan, the counsel for the petitioner former PTI vice president Akbar S Baber, argued that the PTI had made it a pattern to request delays and adjournments on one lame excuse or the other.
Requesting the ECP to take notice of PTI’s delaying tactics, he said in the absence of any restraining order from the Supreme Court or the IHC, the case should proceed.
Rejecting the repeated requests of the PTI’s lawyer to adjourn hearing till the middle of August, the CEC ordered that the case would come up for arguments on July 10.