PHC restrains verdict on PTI election

PESHAWAR:

The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Monday restrained the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) from issuing a final verdict on a plea challenging the PTI intra-party polls.

The polls supervisor is scheduled to hear the petition filed by estranged founding member of the former ruling party Akbar S Babar on Tuesday (today).

A two-member bench of the PHC comprising Justice SM Attique Shah and Justice Shakeel Ahmad heard a writ petition filed by the PTI.

PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali, Qazi Muhammad Anwar, Shah Faisal Atmankhel, Muhammad Nauman Kakakhel and other lawyers appeared before the court.

During the hearing, Barrister Gohar informed the court that PTI intra-party polls were held on December 2 in Peshawar wherein the party chairman was elected unopposed. He said Akbar S Babar filed an application with ECP against these elections, noting that he was not a member of the party anymore.

The PTI chairman contended that the party polls were held under sections 208 and 209 of the Election Act 2017. He said these elections were organised every five years under the party’s constitution. However, he termed Babar’s petition inadmissible, adding that the ECP did not have the authority to hear the plea.

Barrister Gohar said, despite the fact, a full bench fixed the petition for hearing on Tuesday (today) and adopted the stance that a decision could be taken even if nobody appeared on behalf of the PTI.

Read also: Uncertainty clouds PTI intra-party polls

Expressing his reservations, he said the role of ECP with regard to PTI in the past while hearing the foreign funding or jail trial or any other case had been “biased”. He said the polls supervisor remained “partial” whenever any issue pertaining to the PTI came to it.

Justice Ahmed inquired whether the person who had filed the petition was still a member of the PTI to which Barrister Gohar replied that his membership had been terminated more than 10 years ago.

The PTI chairman maintained that his party’s intra-party polls were held under ECP’s September 13 directives and questioned how these elections could be declared unconstitutional.

Barrister Gohar informed the court that after the intra-party polls, he had submitted all the required documents with ECP so that the polls supervisor could notify them in the gazette, regretting that instead the party elections were challenged.

He apprised the court that no intra-party polls in the history of the country had been challenged till now, further noting that neither the ECP had issued a notice in this regard.

He observed that there was no provision in the law that authorised the election supervisor to hear cases pertaining to intra-party polls, adding that the ECP could “go to any extent against PTI as was revealed in the Toshakhana and other cases”.

Read: PTI challenges ECP decision on party polls

Barrister Gohar asserted that PTI represented 70 per cent of the people but still its intra-party certificate was not published which was a “legal requirement”.

He requested the PHC to order the ECP to issue the certificate so that the party’s polls could get constitutional protection.

He feared that if the PTI intra-party polls were declared null and void, the election supervisor would announce the general polls schedule very next day.

After the preliminary hearing, the PHC restrained the ECP form issuing a final verdict on the petition challenging the PTI intra-party polls.

The court adjourned the hearing on PTI’s plea till December 19 while directing the ECP to submit voice comments on it.

Meanwhile, the PTI core committee in a statement, demanded of the ECP to allot the symbol of bat “immediately” for the upcoming general elections that are scheduled to be held on February 8.