PTI MPA plea in Senate video scandal snubbed

IHC upholds ECP decision to initiate criminal proceedings against him

ISLAMABAD:

The Islamabad High Court on Friday rejected the plea of PTI MPA Fahim Khan against criminal proceedings initiated against him by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for his involvement in a Senate election video scandal.

After hearing the arguments, IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah declared the decision of the commission’s action to be correct and ordered to dismiss the petition. He also ordered that action should be taken against the other PTI lawmaker as well.

Justice Minallah remarked that the commission had not given any finding and passed an appropriate order.

Earlier this month, the district election commissioner Islamabad had registered a case of corrupt practice against PPP MPA Ali Haider Gilani and PTI MPAs Captain (retd) Jamil Ahmed Khan and Fahim in the case.

Read IHC reserves verdict on Gilani’s plea

The ECP, while dismissing PTI lawmakers’ petition to disqualify Senator Yousuf Raza Gilani over “corrupt practices”, had ordered the district election commissioner Islamabad to start a criminal case under Sections 167 (corrupt practices) and 168 (bribery) of the Elections Act, 2017 against Gilani’s son, Ali, as well as PTI lawmakers Fahim and Captain (retd) Jamil.

Last year, the PTI had filed a petition seeking disqualification of then PPP Senator-elect Yousuf Raza Gilani, asking the electoral body to stop the issuance of the notification confirming his victory on a general seat from Islamabad in the Senate elections.

The petition was filed by PTI’s Farrukh Habib, Maleeka Bokhari and Kanwal Shauzab.

The lawmakers had filed it based on a controversial audio clip of Sindh minister Nasir Hussain Shah purportedly bargaining with four PTI lawmakers for their votes in the Senate elections and a video of Ali in which he was allegedly explaining some techniques to the same party’s senators on how to waste their votes.

Although Ali had admitted to his conversation with the PTI lawmakers, he maintained that he was only responding to questions about the course of action if the votes were made traceable by a barcode. He had added that he had made no attempt to "buy" votes. The PPP senator defeating PTI candidate Hafeez Sheikh had triggered a debate in political circles about the cracks in the then ruling coalition which had a majority in the National Assembly.

Later, the then premier Imran Khan also took a vote of confidence from the assembly to show that he still enjoyed the support of the majority.

In another development last year, a sub-committee of the federal cabinet, probing the leaked video showing lawmakers allegedly receiving money ahead of Senate elections in 2018, had decided against conducting forensics of the footage.

The committee after deliberations had decided that the video showing the lawmakers was original and they had no proof to challenge its authenticity.