PTI petition seeking bar on poll body thrown out

Says application not maintainable as the party has filed two similar pleas

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court dismissed on Wednesday an application by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) requesting the court to restrain the Election commission of Pakistan (ECP) from proceeding further against the party in the foreign funding case till IHC or the apex court decides the matter.

Justice Aamer Farooq declared the application not maintainable on grounds that PTI has filed a similar application seeking restraining order against ECP along with the main petition of the case and two civil miscellaneous (CM) applications seeking same relief can’t be entertained at the same time.



Justice Farooq, however, issued notice to the respondents – ECP and Akbar S Babar – for September 5 when Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani would resume hearing the case.

In light of an order passed by IHC Chief Justice Muhammad Anwar Khan Kasi, the court which heard the main petition would hear the case and subsequent applications. Justice Farooq conducted proceedings because Justice Kayani was on vacations.

Imran, through his counsel had argued that the ECP has become party to the proceedings of a case in the Supreme Court and has also passed an order against PTI while acting as a court.

In the application, which was linked with the main petition challenging ECP’s order of May 8, PTI argued that ECP can’t simultaneously act as a court and a party under the law in the matter pertaining to foreign funding to PTI.



The counsel said that the petitioner had filed an application for stay of proceedings before the ECP stating that PTI has filed a petition before the IHC against an order passed by the ECP on May 8.

Meanwhile, he said, a petition was filed before the Supreme Court by ruling party’s leader, Muhammad Hanif Abbasi, against Imran Khan and PTI, wherein ECP is a party. In the concise statement, he added, ECP has taken a clear unequivocal position against the petitioner and stated that “there has been fraud.”

Abbasi’s petition is fixed for rebuttal and pending decision in the apex court and, the PTI counsel said, the ECP chose to give details of the foreign funding case when the same was never asked for and have therefore become a party in the proceedings.

He said that PTI had already filed an application for staying of proceedings by the ECP before IHC which is still pending adjudication and no reply has been filed by the respondents, including ECP, till date.

However, on August 16, the ECP dismissed the stay application of the PTI earlier filed before it.



The counsel maintained that after having dismissed the application for stay of proceedings and requiring PTI to file the documents before it will make the present petition infructuous.

Besides, he said, ECP has pronounced a judgment against PTI and stated in Abbasi’s petition before the apex court that “some sort of fraud is being contemplated by them.”

He had prayed the court to restrain ECP from proceeding further in the matter till the decision of the SC or IHC, whichever is earlier.

In the main petition, PTI has once again challenged jurisdiction of the ECP as well as its order of May 8 before the IHC in the foreign funding case.

Imran has challenged ECP’s decision of May 8 saying that the ECP does not have jurisdiction under the Political Parties Order (PPO), 2002, to adjudicate the complaints filed by citizens.

The PTI chairman said that the PPO does not provide a framework of a tribunal for adjudication of complaints and scrutiny of accounts. He said that accounts submitted by the petitioner are past and closed transaction.

In the order passed on May 8, ECP dismissed objection qua jurisdiction of the commission and held that the ECP has all and plenary jurisdiction to go into and scrutinise the accounts of a political party at any time.