Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Former Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Naheed Khan will file a petition on Monday (today) in the Supreme Courtto set aside the orders of Islamabad High Court (IHC) and issue directions to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to name her party as PPP.

Naheed Khan, political secretary to assassinated PPP Chairwoman Benazir Bhutto, will file the petition under Article 185 (3) which will make the ECP, the PPP (Shaheed Bhutto) secretary general, Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPPP) Secretary General Latif Khosa as respondents.

The petition reads that during the tenure of President Asif Zardari, a writ petition and contempt of court application were filed in the Lahore High Court (LHC) against Zardari, restraining him from holding offices of president and PPPP co-chairman. It further readZardari’s counsel contended that the PPP was not a political party but it may at best be described as an association which may be formed by any person under Article 17 of the constitution.

The stance of Zardari’s counsel not only negated the political struggle of the party’s diehard workers but was also disrespectful to the memory of its founding members and its martyrs, the petition stated.

Talking to reporters, Naheed said the aggrieved workers forced her to get thePPP enlisted as a political entity in the ECP.

Meanwhile, PPP (Shaheed Bhutto) Secretary General Ghulam Hussain, PPPPSecretary General Latif Khosa also filed the same applications for changing the name of the political party and the allotment of election symbols. All the applications were heard jointly in the ECP which, on March 25 2013, accepted Khosa’s application while turning down all other applications.

She contended that she challenged the judgement in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) but it was also dismissed on February 6th.

“IHC had not taken into account the dubious manner in which the ECPbegan the hearing of Khosa’s application, which was never on record prior to the date of the hearing for the arguments,”the petition stated.

The petition added that the IHC had erred since Naheed at the time made the applications while she was a member of the PPPP, therefore her application to form a party was hit by Article 5 (3) of the Order 2002.

Such a finding is not only against the law but also against the facts, the petition added. Furthermore, the petitioner had never been a member of the PPPP and IHC erred in making such a factual determination against her.

She contended that the IHC also overlooked the fact that Khosa was the Punjab governor, therefore, as per the law he was barred from political activity for two years after his retirement from the office. The petition claimed that the ECP, against all norms of justice, equity and fair play allotted the name of PPP to the same person who also headed another political party named PPPP.