PTI’s Barrister Gohar Ali Khan, who has been nominated for the slot of party chairman, submitted his nomination papers on Friday ahead of the intra-party polls scheduled for tomorrow (December 2).
On Wednesday, the PTI had formally announced that Imran would not be contesting intra-party polls due to legal problems and Gohar would contest the elections in his stead as a “stopgap arrangement”.
The party had also announced that the internal elections it was mandated to carry out as per the directives of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) would be held on December 2. The ECP had last week ordered the PTI to hold intra-party elections within 20 days to retain the bat as its poll symbol.
A statement issued on the party’s official account on X said it had begun the process of receiving nomination papers for the polls. It added that Gohar had also submitted his documents for the party’s top slot.
Gohar’s nomination papers were received by Returning Officer Advocate Sardar Bharji Khan while PTI Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Advocate Niazullah Niazi was also present, the party said.
PTI founding member visits PTI secretariat
Meanwhile, Akbar S. Babar, one of the founding members of the PTI, visited the party’s central secretariat in Islamabad, along with others, earlier today.
Speaking to reporters, he said the purpose of his visit was to gain information about the intra-party polls, nomination papers and voter list.
“Many founding PTI members with us want to take part in this election and they want to know its procedures and that nomination papers be given to us so we can fully participate in tomorrow’s polls,” he said.
However, later he told Dawn.com that he was informed by the secretariat staff that “they do not have nomination papers, voter list and election rules”. He said that he was confused about how he would participate in the polls now.
A day earlier, Babar had rejected Imran’s nomination of Gohar, calling it “selection instead of an election”.
In a press statement, Babar, who had filed the foreign funding case against the PTI, said the nomination of the new PTI chairman had raised serious questions about the transparency and credibility of the entire intra-party election process. He had also proposed that the Election Commission of Pakistan appoint “observers” to monitor the polls.
Security concerns
Separately, the office of the Peshawar division commissioner sent a reminder to PTI CEC Niazi to provide the necessary information so that foolproof security could be provided on polling day.
In the letter, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, the assistant commissioner said that this was required in light of the present security environment where Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was facing a “peculiar security environment every day”.
It added that law enforcement agencies were “very particular” about security plans, especially regarding public gatherings since attacks had occurred in the past leading to significant loss of life and property.
It pointed out that no response had been received from the PTI and thus, “not even the initial work for a security plan” had been carried out. The reminder pointed out that Niazi’s response was immediately required.
Additional reporting by Ali Akbar
