PTI chief urges judiciary to ensure fair polls

PESHAWAR: PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan on Tuesday said the higher judiciary should play its role in holding fair, free and transparent general elections to provide a capable leadership to the country.

“We have petitioned the Peshawar and Lahore high courts to hold elections under the supervision of the judiciary, as we believe deputy commissioners and local administrations are not impartial,” he said while talking to reporters on the premises of the Peshawar High Court here on Tuesday.

He said if the Election Commission did not allow bat as the election symbol for the PTI, it would cause rigging in the polls and promote horse-trading. He feared that the independent winner candidates would be forcibly wooed to a particular political party. He said the ECP had delayed the decision on allotting the bat as an election symbol to the PTI despite the party holding fair intra-party elections.

The PTI chief said polls could be transparent if the Supreme Court issued directions to the high-ups of respective administrations. He said most of the PTI’s leaders had gone into hiding but they would be awarded tickets to contest the elections when the time came. He said they had high expectations from the judiciary in the legal and constitutional matters in the present difficult situation.

Gohar praised the role of the Peshawar and Lahore high courts, saying that the judiciary was standing with the law and Constitution in the current tough times.