Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Tuesday filed a petition in the Islamabad High Court (IHC), challenging the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) decision to hear a contempt case against PTI chief Imran Khan.

The petition, filed through senior advocate Anwar Mansoor, requested the IHC to restrain the ECP from hearing a contempt case against Imran Khan, pertaining to the foreign funding case under adjudication in the ECP against the PTI.

Anwar Mansoor informed the IHC bench, comprising Justice Aamir Farooq, that the foreign funding case was being heard in the Supreme Court of Pakistan (SC). “So, the ECP should cease its proceedings in the case till the apex court decides it,” he said.

“How can the IHC interfere in a case being heard by the apex court?” Justice Aamir Farooq observed.

The court then issued notices to the petitioner of the foreign funding case in the ECP- Akbar S Babar- and the ECP to submit their replies over the matter by September 7.

On August 10, the ECP had ruled that it had jurisdiction to hear contempt cases and issued a notice to the PTI chairman. The ECP had earlier reserved its verdict on the PTI’s petition against the commission’s jurisdiction.

A five-member ECP bench, headed by Chief Election Commissioner Justice (r) Sardar Muhammad Raza Khan, issued a show-cause notice to the PTI chief, directing him to reply to a contempt petition against him by August 23. At the last hearing on July 25, Khan’s counsel Babar Awan had argued that only the high court and the SC could take up proceedings for contempt under the Constitution.

He said that a legal framework was needed for the ECP to take up contempt cases, as the Contempt of Court law 1976 had ceased to exist. The ECP had issued the contempt notice to Khan on January 24 over his “derogatory remarks” about the commission.

Akbar Babar, who had filed the foreign funding case against the PTI leadership, had informed the ECP that the PTI chief had accused the ECP of being biased in the foreign funding case following which his counsel tendered an apology to the commission.

“In a TV interview, Imran Khan later said his counsel apologised in his personal capacity, and he himself had not apologised to the commission,” the petitioner told the ECP. On August 19, the ECP, in its 8-page detailed verdict on the maintainability of contempt proceedings against Imran Khan, ruled that the proceedings were initiated as a result of derogatory remarks passed in writing against the commission.

The verdict said that Imran Khan had been issued a notice to show cause as to why contempt proceedings should he not be initiated against him for contempt of the commission under section 103A of the ROPA 1976 read with Section 3 and other provisions of the Contempt of Court Ordinance 2003 as well as Article 204 of the Constitution.

About the locus standi of Akbar S Babar to file the contempt application against Khan, the verdict stated that “before us it is filed by a person no other and no less than the main petitioner himself, who is direct party in the proceedings.”

The verdict referred to several case laws to emphasise that the powers of contempt once conferred on the ECP could not be taken away through subsequent amendments to laws, unless specifically mentioned.

The verdict signed by Chief Election Commissioner Justice (r) Sardar Muhammad Raza Khan and all four members of the ECP stated: “In view of section 103A of ROPA, 1976, the commission is vested with the same powers of contempt as are vested in a high court under Article 204 of the Constitution.”

Published in Daily Times, August 23^rd 2017.