ECP retains Shujaat as PMLQ president

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has retained Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain as the President of Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q), dismissing the petition filed by Chaudhry Wajahat Hussain for reducing the term from three to two years.

A three-member bench of the Election Commission, headed by Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja and comprising Nisar Durrani and Shah Muhammad Jatoi, announced the order here Thursday.

The order was issued on the amendments made by Chaudhry Wajahat to the party constitution to reduce the party head’s term, and the intra-party dispute.

“The Election Commission has come to the conclusion that the proceedings of the party’s Central Working Party, which were placed before us to remove the petitioner from the post of president and release the election schedule for the said post, have no value in the eyes of law and are carried out in violation of the party’s constitution, which is declared null and void,” the order says.

Through the order, the bench retained Chaudhry Shujaat as the party president and said that the process of removing him from the post and holding elections related to it within the party had no legal status.

In the verdict, the ECP noted that the last intra-party elections of the PMLQ were held on January 16, 2021 and as per the party constitution, the next election is to be held on January 16, 2025.

According to the decision, under the Elections Act 2017, PMLQ President Chaudhry Shujaat had submitted the certificate of election with the signature to the Election Commission as president, who was elected unopposed as the president of the party in the last elections and whose post will remain until his death or resignation.

Apart from this, the decision issued by the ECP on January 31, 2023 also declared the removal of Chaudhry Shujaat from his post as null and void and contrary to the party constitution. It is pertinent that this decision of the ECP was not rejected by any other forum and is still in force.

The order says Chaudhry Wajahat did not have the authority to amend the party constitution and, at the same time, referring to the party constitution from various provisions of the law, the commission also held that the amendments made to the PMLQ constitution need not be maintained, so the matter is dismissed.

It may be recalled that Chaudhry Wajahat had amended the PMLQ party constitution to reduce the tenure of the president’s post from three to two years. A petition was filed in the Islamabad High Court against the amendments, which referred the matter to the Election Commission on March 22, 2023.