Imran moves ECP against PM remarks on 'purchased' Senate chairmanship

PTI demands premier corroborate claims

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan on Wednesday moved the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) against Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi’s allegations that votes were sold during the Senate chairman’s election.

The prime minister, in a speech in Nanakana Shaib on March 24, leveled allegations of horse-trading in the polling for Senate. He repeated the same allegations the following day in Lahore.

In its petition, the PTI demanded of the premier to corroborate his claims before the ECP.



 



“The prime minister delivered an ‘alarming’ statement on money being traded in the election of the Senate chairman. The office of the chief executive is the most informed. His statement is more of a confession than a disclosure,” the petition reads.

Stating that the ECP must take action, the petition asks for the premier to be summoned and the claims aired probed. Excerpts from the statements were also inserted with the petition.

PM Abbasi had criticised the Senate election in which the ruling party suffered defeat despite enjoying overall majority in the house, saying how the country could retain respect worldwide with “Senate elections that were contested employing money”.

“An election where votes were sold got us a chairman who was unknown in political circles earlier. It is sad to have such a person as Senate chairman, an institution that represents the federation,” he had said.



Objections to delimitations

On the first day of hearing, a five-member bench of the ECP reserved verdict on the objections filed against fresh delimitations for National Assembly constituencies in Kasur district. The commission is likely to release the verdict today (Thursday).

The commission accepted two other objections for a provincial assembly seat in Battagram district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

In its ruling, the ECP directed the relevant officials to add patwar circles – Paimal and Hootal – to provincial assembly constituency PK-29. Those areas were earlier earmarked in PK-28 constituency.

The petitioners said that four patwar circles of their area have been included in Allai tehsil constituency, arguing that there is a mountain in between Battagram tehsil and Allai tehsil, with no direct road link.

After hearing arguments both in fovour and against the new delimitations, the ECP reserved its judgment which was released later in the afternoon.



The petitioners from Kasur district said that as per rule, the ECP had to mark the boundaries clockwise, but this rule was violated in the case of two National Assembly constituencies in the district.

Due to wrong marking, two patwars – Khara and Lakhni – have been added to NA-137 which should have been in NA-138, they claimed.

Representative of the ECP committee that had marked the boundaries of the area said there was nothing wrong with the map, but there was some mistake in the notification. The ECP reserved its judgment to be issued today (Thursday).

The bench will take up the petitions filed against the delimitations in Shikarpur district, Sindh.

The ECP received a total of 1,286 pleas against the new delimitations. Of those, 706 were filed from Punjab and Islamabad Capital Territory, 284 from Sindh, 192 from Khyber-Paktunkhwa and 104 from Balochistan.

On March 5, the ECP had released the draft of the newly-marked boundaries of the constituencies for public scrutiny. It had asked the voters to file objections, if any, against the delimitations by April 3.