PHC seeks documents in Afridi petition

ECP told to share order; verdict at next hearing

PESHAWAR:

The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Wednesday di-rected the lawyers of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister So-hail Afridi to submit additional documents in his writ petition challenging a notice issued by the Election Commission of Paki-stan (ECP).

The two-member bench observed that it would hear the case and deliver its verdict on the next date of hearing.

The petition was heard by a division bench comprising Justice Syed Arshad Ali and Justice Farah Jamshed.

During the proceedings, Advocate Alam Khan Adinzai and Ad-vocate Bashir Khan appeared for Chief Minister Sohail Afridi, while officials of the Election Commission of Pakistan were pre-sent in court.

At the outset of the hearing, the chief minister's counsel in-formed the court that his client, who is the elected Chief Minis-ter of the province, was issued a notice by the ECP for allegedly threatening government officials during a public rally in Haripur. The lawyers argued that the rally was held outside the constituency where the by-election was taking place, yet the ECP still issued the notice.

The counsel told the court that they wished to place on record certain documents to highlight what they termed as "selective action" by the Election Commission. They pointed out that on the same day Chief Minister Sohail Afridi addressed the rally in K-P, Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz also held a public meeting, but the ECP took no action against her. They added that they had filed a complaint with the ECP against Maryam Nawaz, which was dismissed by the commission.

Justice Syed Arshad Ali remarked that the matter concerning Punjab fell outside the jurisdiction of the Peshawar High Court.

The petitioner's lawyers further submitted that they wanted to bring to the court's notice the "discriminatory attitude" of the Election Commission, which initiated proceedings against the K-P Chief Minister for holding a rally but took no action against the Punjab Chief Minister for a similar act.

They also complained that the ECP had not provided them with a copy of the order rejecting their application against Maryam Nawaz. The lawyers requested the court to direct the Election Commission to furnish the copy so it could be placed on the court record.

The bench directed the Election Commission to provide the re-quired copy to the petitioner's counsel. The court further in-structed the lawyers to submit any additional documents they wished to file and stated that the case would be decided on the next date of hearing.