ECP sets hearing for PTI intra-party election case amid SC pressure

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has scheduled a hearing on the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) intra-party election case for September 18, issuing notices to PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar and party leader Raoof Hasan.

In a statement, the ECP clarified that Barrister Gohar is not yet recognised as the PTI chairman, as the intra-party elections remain under judicial review. "The perception that Barrister Gohar has been accepted as PTI chairman is completely false," the statement read. The commission is still to rule on the intra-party election matter, which has been pending.

The ECP's move comes after an eight-member Supreme Court bench, in a case regarding reserved seats, urged the commission to expedite its decision on party leadership and intra-party elections.

Two days earlier, the court criticised the delay in implementing its decision on reserved seats and warned the ECP of serious consequences if its ruling was not enforced.

The Supreme Court had clarified its position on the reserved seats case, with the bench ordering the ECP to immediately release a list of PTI’s returned candidates. In a four-page statement, the bench stated that the absence of an election symbol does not nullify a political party's constitutional rights.

“PTI remains a recognised political party and has secured seats in both national and provincial assemblies,” the judges wrote.

In July, the full court accepted an appeal from the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC), a PTI-affiliated group, overturning a Peshawar High Court ruling that had upheld the ECP’s decision to deny SIC reserved seats. The decision reinstated PTI as the largest party in the National Assembly by securing these reserved seats.

A majority of the judges recognised 39 of the 80 SIC lawmakers as PTI members, based on party affiliation certificates submitted before the general elections, and allowed the remaining 41 lawmakers to join PTI within 15 days. However, Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa, along with four other judges, dissented from the majority opinion.

In the wake of this Supreme Court ruling, the ECP has also scheduled the hearing for the intra-party elections of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) on September 18. The commission issued a cause list for the case, with a notice sent to JUI-F to submit its response.