LAHORE:
As the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is all set to take up pleas against the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) intra-party polls on Friday, the former ruling party, in a purported pre-emptive attempt, moved a petition on Thursday before the Lahore High Court (LHC), pleading to strike down the electoral watchdog’s order dated November 23, wherein it had directed the PTI for holding “transparent” polls to elect new officer-bearers within 20 days.
Though the party complied with the ECP’s order and elected several office bearers unopposed to avert the possible loss of its electoral symbol “bat”, the intra-party elections triggered allegations of “pretence and deception” by one of the founding members of the party Akbar S Babar.
Challenging the party’s intra-party polls before the ECP, Babar urged the commission to appoint an independent third-party monitor to conduct the PTI’s fresh intra-party polls.
He added that the “fraudulent” election process had deprived the PTI members of their right to vote and participate in the polls.
The report of the fresh intra-party election results, which was conducted on December 2, was submitted to the ECP by PTI Chief Election Commissioner Niazullah Niazi.
In today’s petition, filed by Barrister Ali Zafar, former PTI chairman Imran Khan and PTI’s General Secretary Omar Ayub Khan requested the court to nullify ECP’s order it passed on November 23, 2023 and declare valid the PTI’s intra-party elections held on June 10, 2022.
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The court was further prayed to not only suspend the operation of ECP’s order of November 23 but also restrain ECP from passing any further adverse orders till the disposal of this petition.
The petitioners claimed that ECP wrote a letter on May 24, 2021, followed by a show cause notice on July 27, 2021, to the petitioner Imran Khan to hold intra-party elections before June 12, 2021.
They said that the former PTI chairman sought time and replied to the show cause notice that the party’s polls could not be held due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The ECP subsequently extended the time period.
Later, the PTI unanimously amended its constitution and brought to the ECP’s notice through a letter on June 9, 2022.
The petition contended that the intra-party elections were held under its amended constitution. It added that the party then notified its office bearers including the chairman, vice chairman, secretary general, provincial presidents and general secretaries and then forwarded the results to ECP on June 10, 2022.
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It recalled that the ECP neither disputed the holding of the intra-party elections by the petitioner nor questioned the legality of the exercise.
The petition further highlighted inconsistencies in the ECP’s decisions. It pointed out that during a verbal order on September 23, 2023, the commission acknowledged the validity of PTI’s intra-party elections conducted under the 2019 constitution of the party.
However, despite repeated requests for a written order, the commission delayed its issuance until November 23, 2023. The written order, instead of ratifying the previous oral decision, inexplicably ordered the PTI to hold fresh intra-party elections.
Therefore, the PTI implored the court to nullify the ECP’s November 23 decision and declare the June 10, 2022, intra-party elections valid. Additionally, it urged the court to restrain the ECP from issuing any further directives on this matter.
