PTI chief fails to appear before ECP in intra-party polls case

CEC adjourns hearing till Aug 8 on PTI lawyer's request

ISLAMABAD:

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman on Friday did not appear before the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) despite having been served a final notice over the party's failure to hold intra-party elections.

The electoral watchdog had summoned the PTI chief, warning him that if he failed to appear before the commission, the ECP might – under Section 215 (5) of the Elections Act, 2017 – declare his party ineligible to obtain an election symbol for future polls.

Referring to Section 209(1) of the Elections Act, the ECP pointed out that every registered political party was bound to provide the commission with a certificate about the holding of its intra-party polls.

The PTI’s intra-party elections were scheduled to be held on June 13 in 2021 under the party’s constitution.

In May last year, the commission issued a show-cause notice to Imran for his failure to hold intra-party elections of the PTI in his capacity as its chairman.

The ECP extended the date at the request of the PTI, allowing it to conduct its intra-party elections by June 13, 2022.

However, the former ruling party failed to hold its intra-party polls even by the new date.

No progress could be made on the matter during the hearing, as PTI's lawyer Barrister Gohar Ali appeared before the panel headed by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja and requested for the hearing to be postponed instead.

The lawyer argued that the record of the election could not be submitted because the PTI had held elections before amendments were passed in the intra-party polls law.

Upon this, an ECP member observed that the PTI chief wrote that on June 8 the constitutional amendment was passed and on June 10, intra-party elections were held.

Later, the lawyer requested the electoral body to adjourn the hearing.

The CEC responded that in media statements, it was said that if the commission would serve the party notices, the concerned persons would provide responses.

"We have served the notice on PTI’s request," he said, before adjourning the proceedings until Aug 8 (Tuesday).