ISLAMABAD: A self-proclaimed voter of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has requested the Supreme Court to allow her for holding intra-party election as a temporary chairman of the party so that free and fair election could be held.
Iqra Mubarik, spouse of Muhammad Adnan, filed an application in the apex court for pleading as party in the review petition filed by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) President Nawaz Sharif against its decision of July 12, holding that the PTI was eligible for getting reserved seats for women and minorities in the National and provincial assemblies.
She submitted that as there was no chairman of the PTI who could conduct intra-party election. Therefore, she requested the apex court to allow her to hold the election as a temporary chairman of the party.
“I will not participate in intra-party election as well,” she added.
She further prayed the court to accept her application and may be allowed to be impleaded as party as respondent in the case.
She submitted that as per July 12 decision, as a PTI voter, worker and a candidate for party chairman, under Section 104 of the Election Act 2017, she has firstly submitted on July 13 the list of reserved seats for women and non-Muslims to the National & provincial assemblies of Punjab and Sindh to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), and also requested to allow to 6 to 7 working days to submit nomination papers for these reserve seats.
“In section 104 of Election Act 2017 under which a political party submit list of reserve seats, there is no restriction that only chairman can submit list of reserve seats for women and Non-Muslims,” she contended
She submitted that Gohar Ali Khan and 90 others office-bearers who were dismissed by Supreme Court were unable to submit list of reserve seats. Therefore, she prayed the apex court to accept her lists of reserve seats.
She submitted that Sahibzada Hamid Raza, Chairman Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) submitted his nomination papers for the 2024 elections on the PTI platform and his name was mentioned in the party’s official list issued and signed by Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan on the PTI official website on January 23 for NA-104 constituency, and being a PTI candidate, he won NA-104 with 128,687 votes while PMLN candidate Raja Daniyal Ahmed got 92,594 votes.
She submitted that these votes were casted to Hamid Raza due to his PTI membership because the SIC could get only 5,093 votes from its formation till 2018 in NA-104.
“That shows that victory of Hamid Raza belong to PTI, not SIC,” she contended, adding that a few days after winning the election, Hamid Raza declared himself the SIC chairman.
“He also falls in the above mentioned category of disqualification under Article 62 due to his misrepresentation, fraud, cheating and breach of trust,” she submitted.
She questioned if Hamid Raza could be a member of two parties at the same time. And if he resigned from the SIC chairmanship during the 2024 general election, then who was the chairman of the party during that time? Was the resignation notified to the ECP and whether after the resignation, intra-party elections were held for the new chairman, she questioned
She further questioned as to how many times did the SIC hold intra-party elections during this period.