ISLAMABAD: The Chief Election Commissioner and the other members of the commission Tuesday questioned the rationale of the PTI lawyers, who during hearing on intra-party polls, insisted that the election symbol of ‘bat’ should be allotted to their party early while the proceedings may continue.
Keeping in view the urgency of the matter, Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja ordered that the next hearing should be held as soon as possible when detailed arguments would be heard from all parties to conclude the matter. The hearing was fixed for December 14.
A full five-member bench of the Election Commission heard arguments by PTI lawyers including PTI’s ‘controversially’ elected Chairman Ali Gohar Khan and Senator Ali Zafar regarding the challenge by 14 PTI members including its founding member Akbar S. Babar against the party’s intra party election held on December 2, 2023.
They had termed the intra party election fraudulent and without legitimacy demanding that the commission declare them ‘null and void’ and sought re-election. However, on their part, PTI lawyers contended that despite their reservations to the ECP order of November 23, 2023 declaring the PTI intra party elections held in June 2022 as ‘null and void’ and ordering fresh elections in 20 days, they have complied with the order and held fresh elections on December 2, 2023.
They stated that now that the entire documentation was complete and submitted before the ECP, the PTI election symbol ‘bat’ should be immediately allotted to it without further delay.
When the Chief Election Commissioner asked about the Peshawar High Court restraining order passed a day earlier, PTI lawyer Ali Zafar read out the order which restrained the commission from passing any adverse order by December 19, 2023 upon which date the Peshawar High Court would hear and receive the ECP’s response to the PTI writ petition.
Earlier, PTI Chairman Ali Gohar Khan had claimed before the media that the complaint filed by Akbar S. Babar before the ECP was not maintainable as he had been expelled from the party ten years back.
The PTI lawyers also questioned the powers of the ECP to challenge intra party polls. Upon which the DG Law read the relevant sections of the Constitution and a judgment of the Supreme Court of Pakistan that gives full powers to the ECP to regulate political parties.
The DG Law said that the certificate would be issued only after the Election Commission was satisfied. To this, Barrister Zafar said that the DG Law was giving arguments against them, whereas he was supposed to assist the commission. The CEC responded to him by saying that the DG Law was assisting them.
The CEC also inquired from other complainants regarding the complaint filed against the PTI intra party polls. Akbar S. Babar said that he was concerned that the PTI lawyers continue to deliberately misguide judges of the higher judiciary with regard to his status of PTI membership as at least two written orders of the ECP and two judicial orders of the Islamabad High Court were on record that validate his membership.
Other complainants and their lawyers requested the commission bench to allow access to PTI intra party election documents and any other document submitted by the party before the ECP. The chief election commissioner granted the requests and directed that applications may be filed to acquire the required record.
Talking to the media after the hearing, PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan said that the party had been ‘under attack’ for a long time. He warned that if they tried to snatch the ‘bat’, it will be an injustice to the public, demanding the Election Commission to allot the certificate of the ‘bat’ soon. He claimed 70 per cent people were with his party.
PTI’s lawyer Ali Zafar said that the intra-party elections of other political parties were not being questioned. He maintained that the job of the Election Commission is to give certificates on intra-party elections and asked how can the Election Commission hear the petitions?
He claimed that the ‘petitioners were neither workers nor their names were in the voter lists’. He added that the Election Commission was not authorized to hear the case while the election schedule was being delayed and constitutional responsibility should be fulfilled.
Talking to the media outside the Election Commission, Akbar S. Babar emphasized the time had come to challenge the PTI lawyers who continue to falsely accuse him of being expelled from the party. He said he would submit to the ECP and the judicial orders of the Islamabad High Court, which validated his membership before all judicial forums demanding that contempt proceedings should be initiated against all PTI lawyers who deliberately spread disinformation about his membership and misguide the judiciary on this account.
Babar said he would also complain before the Pakistan Bar Council against the PTI lawyers for professional misconduct demanding that their professional licences should be suspended for knowingly spreading false information and misguiding the judiciary about his membership of PTI.
He said all they wanted was to ensure that PTI workers all across must not be denied their fundamental right of electing the leadership of their choice. He added the right was guaranteed under the Constitution and orders of the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
Babar repeated that it is time that the charade of holding rigged and manipulated intra-party elections must end and that all major political parties must be vigorously scrutinized under the relevant laws to allow credible and competent leadership to emerge from within political parties.
This is the only way forward for democracy to deliver and meet the challenges confronting society. I have no sympathy with all those who broke and the law created chaos in the country. Without the writ of the state, no society can flourish,” he maintained.
He cited examples of the US where all those who had attacked the Capitol Hill were being punished with jail terms, whereas contrary to it, in Pakistan, acts of violence and vandalism have gone unpunished for the last several years seriously denting economic and political stability. He said PTI lawyers who champion democracy, rule of law, and fundamental rights before courts have hurt their democratic credentials by acting as the face of a completely fraudulent intra party electoral process that even independent observers reject. He said their argument that similar intra party elections were conducted by the PMLN and PPP, as PTI was meant to be a role model and trend setter but now it seems their role model is PPP and PMLN. Earlier, during hearing, Barrister Ali Zafar requested the Election Commission to give an early verdict in the case on the petitions against the intra-party elections.
