ECP adjourns intra-party case till 14th
Despite the PTI’s insistence, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday adjourned hearing petitions challenging the former ruling party’s intra-party elections till Thursday, December 14, after some complainants sought time to prepare the arguments.
The ECP also accepted one of the petitioner Akbar S Babar’s request that he may be furnished with details of the intra-party polls held on December 2.
On Tuesday, PTI Chairman Gohar Ali Khan, party’s chief election commissioner Niaz Ullah Niazi and its counsel Barrister Ali Zafar appeared before a five-member ECP bench led by Chief Election Commission Sikandar Sultan Raja. The people who had challenged the PTI’s intra-party polls including Akbar S Babar and Khurrum Nawaz also attended the hearing.
As the proceedings started, CEC Raja, in response to a query by Ali Zafar, said that the commission would first hear arguments of the petitioners and would later allow the party to defend itself.
Addressing the bench, petitioner Khurrum Nawaz reiterated his claim that the PTI conducted fake intra-party elections to elect some specific people to key posts. While seeking more time to prepare his arguments, he stated that he wanted to submit more documents to the court.
Akbar S Babar told the bench that he was still a PTI member according to two separate orders of the ECP but he was not allowed to participate in the elections. He said that the party had not provided him details with regard to the December 2 polls.
Ali Zafar urged the bench to first decide whether these petitions were even maintainable or not.
He said the PTI had reservations with regard to the ECP’s order to hold intra-party polls. However, the party held these elections as per its order. He said the ECP was supposed to issue a certificate to the party within seven days after the election.
“As the seven-day period has elapsed today, the ECP cannot further delay the certification. The ECP should issue our certificate immediately,” he said, adding that the ECP's credibility was at risk due to this delay. “The ECP cannot hear the case like a court of law,” he added.
The CEC replied that the PTI had not held intra-party elections in five years and that these elections were held only on the ECP's order.
“The intra-party elections conducted by the PTI, in our opinion, are not valid.Blaming the ECP for one’s own mistakes is not justified,” he added.
Addressing the PTI counsel, one of the bench members, Ikramullah Khan, said there is no rule barring the ECP from issuing orders only in favor of the PTI. The CEC added that ECP has the authority to proceed with this case.
Another member of the bench, Nisar Ahmed Durrani, noted that previously no such requests were brought forth against intra-party elections of any political party.
The ECP’s director general law stated that the Islamabad High Court (IHC) conferred to the ECP the jurisdiction over intra-party elections while hearing the MQM intra-party elections case.
“The Supreme Court has affirmed that overseeing intra-party elections falls under the jurisdiction of the ECP. If any political party fails to conduct intra-party elections, the ECP can take action against it under the Election Act, 2017,” he added.
PTI’s counsel Ali Zafar referred to an order of the Peshawar High Court (PHC) which on Monday stopped the ECP from issuing final orders on petitions challenging the PTI’s intra-party polls. Later, the bench adjourned till Thursday.