Gohar, Ayub win PTI top slots unopposed

In a major development in the intra-party election of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Barrister Gohar Ali Khan was elected Chairman and Umar Ayub Secretary General unopposed, along with the leadership of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab and Sindh on Thursday.

However, there is a three-way contest for the president of the party’s Balochistan chapter president, which would be held on March 3. According to the party officials, the final results would be announced on Sunday after the election in Balochistan.

The PTI would election its chairman, secretary general and four provincial chiefs through the intra-party elections on March 3. As per the election schedule, Thursday was the last day of withdrawal of candidates and panels for provinces.

At the end of that phase, PTI Federal Election Commissioner Raoof Hassan issued the final list of candidates for the posts of party chairman, central secretary-general, Punjab president panel, K-P president panel, Sindh president panel and Balochistan president panel.

“With Reference to the schedule of Intra-Party-Election issued on February 23, 2024, following is the revised final list of Panels/Candidates: 1. Chairman’s Election, Barrister Gohar Ali Khan; 2. Central Secretary General’s Panel, Omar Ayub Khan Panel; 3. Punjab President Panel, Dr Yasmin Rashid Panel; Khyber Pakhtunkhwa President Panel, Ali Amin Khan Gandapur Panel; 5. Sindh President Panel, Haleem Adil Sheikh Panel,” said a press release.

“With only one Candidate/Panel remaining as above, they have been declared elected unopposed by the respective Returning Officers,” said a press release. “There shall, therefore, be no polling at the above stated 5 places,” it added.

“Polling shall take place only at Quetta for the election of President Balochistan Panel,” the press release said, adding that in Baluchistan, the president panels in contest were: a) Amin Khan Jogazai Panel b) Dawood Shah Panel and c) Munir Ahmad Baloch Panel.

The press release announced that the final result of the election would be declared by the Federal Election Commissioner on March 3, 2024, at the conclusion of the election process.

The PTI is holding the intra-party elections after a long battle in the run-up to the February 8 general elections, when it was stripped of its electoral symbol of ‘bat’ by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), a decision endorsed by the Supreme Court.

Intra-party election is a required under the Election Act. The last elections were held in the PTI during June 2016 with the next elections due in June 2021. However, in response to ECP’s notice, the party stated that it had failed to hold the elections due to the COVID pandemic and asked for a year’s time.

The party conducted its elections on 8 June 2022, but the ECP refused to accept the elections. After long proceedings in the ECP, the PTI conducted the intra-party election again on December 2 2023. However, these elections were also challenged in the ECP.

The ECP again ruled that the elections were not held according to the party’s constitution and decided to strip the party PTI of its electoral symbol. PTI termed the order of ECP as “deeply flawed” and challenged it in both the Lahore High Court (LHC) and the Peshawar High Court (PHC).

On January 13, 2024, less than a month before the 2024 elections, a three-member Supreme Court bench affirmed the ECP’s decision, overturning a previous PHC reversal. Following the apex court decision, PTI candidates contested the elections as independent candidates.

Recently, the ECP ordered the PTI to hold intra-party polls within 20 days, allowing them to contest elections with the symbol of a ‘bat’23. The PTI’s internal elections were scheduled for February 5, 2024. However, the party later delayed the polls and gave the new date of March 3.