ECP reserves decision on PTI plea

Lawyer challenges ECP jurisdiction over scrutiny of intra-party polls

ISLAMABAD:

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday reserved its decision on the requests of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) to keep the intra-party election case pending until the matter was clarified by the Supreme Court.

On July 23, the ECP had given time to the PTI to submit documents regarding its intra-party election. The matter was taken up by ECP. PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan and Uzair Bhandari Advocate appeared before the commission.

At the outset of the hearing, Bhandari stated that the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) raided their offices and seized all the records. He added that they did not have original documents and electronic records with them. He said that if the ECP ordered, the record could be obtained from the FIA.

Presenting his arguments, Bhandari said that the ECP had sent a questionnaire to the party, in which the first question was about the current status of the PTI. He added that the question had been answered in the short order of the Supreme Court in the reserved seats case.

"The Supreme Court declared that the Tehreek-e-Insaaf was and is a political party," Bhandari said. On that ECP's member Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa pointed out that the ECP had never said that the PTI was not a registered political party.

"If we wait for the Supreme Court's detailed judgment, this matter will be clarified," he said. He mentioned that the ECP had sought clarification from the Supreme Court regarding the reserved seats, saying that PTI had no administrative structure. He added that PTI did not accept ECP's this position.

The ECP member told the lawyer that ECP had not moved the Supreme Court on the matter of the PTI's intra-party election, rather it had asked the apex court to clarify as to whose certificate would be recognised in the matter of distribution of the reserved seats to the PTI.

Barrister Gohar said that 39 lawmakers, already recognised by the ECP as the PTI member, were issued the party certificates by him. The ECP member told the PTI chairman that those were recognised as the PTI members on the orders of the Supreme Court and not because of his (Gohar's) signature.

The lawyer said that the decision of the Supreme Court was before the ECP and stressed that ECP could not decide whether the intra-party elections of the political parties were correct or not. Bhandari then urged the ECP not to hear the case further until the Supreme Court's detailed judgment came.