Daily Times

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Friday dismissed the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) pleas seeking deferment of the hearing of the case regarding its intra-party polls till the Supreme Court provides clarification on its July 12 ruling on the reserved seats matter.

In its decision, the ECP maintained that the PTI had already delayed the issue of intra-party polls a lot and it wouldn’t be appropriate to defer the matter any further.

The ruling, reserved on August 27, was announced by the electoral body’s three-member bench comprising Nisar Ahmed Durrani, Shah Muhammad Jatoi and Justice (retd) Ikram Ullah. The development comes as the Imran Khan-founded party had filed a plea in the ECP seeking a delay in hearing of the intra-party elections issue and had also challenged its jurisdiction over the matter.

It is to be noted that the government body had taken up the matter after the apex court’s full bench declared the party eligible for the allocation of reserved seats.

The months-long intra-party polls saga dates back to last year when the ECP revoked the party’s bat symbol over unlawful elections within the party. The PTI had then held another intra-party elections in March this year – which too were challenged in the electoral body.

Stressing that registered political parties are obligated to elect their officials at the federal and local levels, ECP’s today’s verdict says that arguments in the case regarding PTI’s intra-party polls will be taken up on September 18.

The ruling also pointed out that the former ruling party’s own members had filed complaints with the commission on intra-party elections. Rejecting the former ruling party’s plea challenging its jurisdiction, the electoral body said that it is bound to verify the documents submitted by a party under Section 208 of the Elections Act.

The commission is bound to look into the matter before issuing the certificate to the party and is also responsible for seeing whether the intra-party elections have been conducted in accordance with the law and the party constitution or not, read the order issued by the three-member bench.

On the party’s complaint regarding the seizure of records and computers by the Federal Investigation Agency, the ECP directed the former ruling party to approach the relevant forum for the return of said items.