Daily Times

The recently held intra-party elections of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) have once again been questioned by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), sources said on Wednesday.

The electoral authority has sent a notice to the former ruling party over alleged irregularities in the intra-party polls conducted on March 3, according to the sources.

The Political Financing Wing of the ECP has asked PTI representatives to appear before the electoral watchdog on April 30. This is the third time that the poll organising authority has taken exception to the beleaguered party’s internal elections.

The PTI filed the documents related to its intra-party polls to the ECP on March 4. The documents, submitted by PTI’s Federal Election Commissioner Raoof Hasan, included details of the newly-elected party office-bearers, a certificate of the party chief containing Form 65, names of the core committee members, and other relevant records. The party, which elected Barrister Gohar Ali Khan and Omar Ayub as its chairman and secretary general on March 3, needs the relevant certificate to qualify for the allocation of its electoral symbol “bat” by the electoral body.

After being kicked out of the election race following the Supreme Court’s verdict upholding the ECP’s decision wherein the electoral body had revoked its “bat” symbol citing unlawful intra-party polls, the PTI conducted fresh polls last week. However, the recent intra-party polls have been once again challenged by PTI’s founding member Akbar S Babar who had filed two separate pleas with the electoral body seeking annulment of the intra-party elections.