{"id":55418,"date":"2024-02-02T11:26:59","date_gmt":"2024-02-02T11:26:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/pti-changes-its-mind-postpones-intra-party-polls-until-after-feb-8-elections\/"},"modified":"2024-02-02T11:26:59","modified_gmt":"2024-02-02T11:26:59","slug":"pti-changes-its-mind-postpones-intra-party-polls-until-after-feb-8-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/pti-changes-its-mind-postpones-intra-party-polls-until-after-feb-8-elections\/","title":{"rendered":"PTI changes its mind, postpones intra-party polls until after Feb 8 elections"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\n<p>A day after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1810546\/pti-eyes-proxies-to-circumvent-poll-ban\">announcing<\/a> the schedule for fresh intra-party polls, the PTI said on Friday that it had decided to postpone them until after the upcoming general elections over the \u201cunfortunate security situation created by the administration\u201d and concerns expressed by members.<\/p>\n<p>After a long battle and marathon hearings last month, the PTI was stripped of its symbol when the Supreme Court <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1805488\">upheld<\/a> the Election Commission of Pakistan\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1800094\">decision<\/a> to declare the party\u2019s internal polls as \u201cunconstitutional\u201d.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media  sm:w-1\/2  w-full  media--right  media--embed  media--uneven\">\n<p>    <iframe class=\"nk-iframe\" onload=\"setInterval(()=&gt;{try{this.style.height=this.contentWindow.document.body.scrollHeight+'px';}catch{}}, 100)\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" style=\"height:400px;position:relative\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/card\/1808685\" sandbox=\"allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-popups allow-modals allow-forms\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>As a result, the party\u2019s members are now contesting the elections as independent candidates with different electoral symbols, which has raised fears of horse-trading and floor crossing. The PTI also no longer has the right to reserved seats for women and minorities.<\/p>\n<p>In another bid to reclaim its symbol, the PTI had decided to hold intra-party polls on Feb 5 during its general body meeting on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>The meeting, which was supposed to take place at PTI\u2019s Central Secretariat in Islamabad\u2019s Sector G-8, was shifted online after police and security officials in plainclothes allegedly raided and took control of the premises and stopped members from entering, party sources had <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1810210\">told<\/a> <em>Dawn<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>An official of the capital police had denied the allegation, pointing out that a raid could not be conducted without having permission from a magistrate and no such order was issued that day.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media  sm:w-1\/2  w-full  media--right  media--embed  media--uneven\">\n<p>    <iframe class=\"nk-iframe\" onload=\"setInterval(()=&gt;{try{this.style.height=this.contentWindow.document.body.scrollHeight+'px';}catch{}}, 100)\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" style=\"height:400px;position:relative\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/card\/1810546\" sandbox=\"allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-popups allow-modals allow-forms\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>A day earlier, PTI information secretary Raoof Hasan told <em>Dawn<\/em> that all arrangements had been finalised for the intra-party elections.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have opened a portal on the website\u2026and only registered members will be allowed to contest elections. Candidates can get nomination papers from offices across the country or can download them from the website,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Hasan added that they would submit the result to the ECP, but they were not hoping for any relief from the watchdog. He feared the ECP may not allot the PTI its symbol or say that the elected independent members would not be allowed to join the party since it did not have lawmakers in the lower house of parliament.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, former ECP secretary Kanwar Dilshad told <em>Dawn<\/em> that the election wat\u00adchdog would be the final decision-making authority in this regard.<\/p>\n<p>However, in a notification issued today, a copy of which is available with <em>Dawn.com<\/em>, the PTI said its internal polls were being rescheduled and would now take place after the date for the general elections.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt the time of holding the general body meeting of the PTI on Jan 31, the designated venue of the party where the meetings were set to take place and the entry of participants were unlawfully blocked by the administration, including sealing of the Islamabad office, thus forcing us to search for and confirm alternate places and seek legal remedies,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhile we are ready for holding intra-party elections on the basis of secret ballot through digital balloting, the arrangements for availability of alternate venues requires additional time,\u201d the statement, issued by Hasan, said.<\/p>\n<p>It added that the party also received requests by its members that they were unable to find time to participate in the internal elections due to preparations for the Feb 8 polls.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTaking cognisance of the security situation created by the administration and the views expressed by some of our members, the holding of intra-party elections needs to be rescheduled.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey will now take place after the national elections on a date within the mandate and timeframe approved by the general body meeting. The amended schedule will be duly announced by the office of the federal election commission shortly,\u201d the PTI said.<\/p>\n<p>It concluded that federal and provincial offices of the party would continue to receive nomination forms till 10pm tonight and urged members to complete all formalities before that.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A day after announcing the schedule for fresh intra-party polls, the PTI said on Friday that it had decided to postpone them until after the upcoming general elections over the \u201cunfortunate security situation created by the administration\u201d and concerns expressed by members. After a long battle and marathon hearings last month, the PTI was stripped [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55419,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2024\/02\/021541376fd6d87.jpg?r=154141","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55418"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55418\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}