Election tribunal: PTI downplays speculations, says probe body stands dissolved

Party deemed media reports on the subject as ‘unfortunate’

ISLAMABAD: A day after Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) Election Tribunal held a meeting in defiance of party chairman Imran Khan's decision to dissolve the body, the party deemed media reports on the development as ‘unfortunate’.

In a statement, the party’s information secretary Dr Shireen Mazari said, “The two-man tribunal formed to probe petitions relating specifically to the 2013 intra-party elections stood dissolved by the chairman PTI.”

Mazari termed it unfortunate that the media has continued to delve on this issue while the tribunal and its members had become functus officio once they had completed the task of looking into the intra-party complaints.

Read: Growing rifts: PTI tribunal head ignores Imran’s decision

To substantiate her point, she pointed out that the tribunal had itself informed the chairman of having disposed all the electoral complaints it had received.

Unfortunately, she maintained, that it had started to intervene in other organisational matters outside of its purview. Nonetheless, in the spirit of tolerance and democracy, the PTI chief had accepted some of the suggestions. These included appointing a new chief election commissioner who would inform the party on when elections could be held. The membership committee was also put under the CEC so that a rational date could be ascertained, she added.

“The tribunal chairman (Justice retired Wajihuddin Ahmed) himself acknowledged that the chairman of PTI had all the authority to take decisions in its report,” added Mazari.

Read: Internal wrangling: PML-N to take action against dissenter Wajihuzaman

Explaining the role of the tribunal’s head, Mazari said, “It is sad that Justice Wajihuddin, whom the entire party holds in utmost respect, confused PTI’s affairs with the working of courts of the state.”

On the other hand, Justice Wajihuddin has said that, “Just as General Pervaiz Musharaf on February 26, 2000, was truncating the Supreme Court, on a day when, across the border, India were celebrating their Republic Day; we on the party's founding day have disbanded our own intra-party tribunal.”

Commenting on the development, Akbar S Babar, one of the PTI’s founding member who had filed a petition before the ECP regarding allegations of corruption in collection of donations, told The Express Tribune that the decision of PTI chairman is akin  to ‘a declaration of martial law’, issued on the day the PTI was founded.