ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) spokesperson Thursday criticised the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for its ‘irresponsible and nonsensical statement in which it declared Peshawar High Court (PHC)’s order as judicial interference in the election process.
He alleged that the ECP was now resorting to fire salvos at the judiciary to hide its failure to conduct elections within the constitutionally mandated timeframe of 90 days.
The spokesperson said that after playing a key role in the conspiracy to push the country's most popular political party out of the electoral race, the ECP turned its guns towards the judiciary. He pointed out that the ECP role as a tool of a particular political party against the PTI during the last two years was not hidden from anyone.
He charged that the ECP was playing the role of a silent spectator despite the irrefutable evidence of harassment and abduction of candidates during the process of receiving and scrutinizing the nomination papers of PTI’s candidates.
He reminded that the commission's sole constitutional responsibility was to conduct free and fair elections and provide equal political environment to all political parties for election activities.
The PTI spokesperson made it clear that the courts have been left with no option but to intervene in the ECP affairs to protect the Constitution and law, adding that after continuously deviating from its constitutional mandate, the ECP was now committing contempt of court through anti-judiciary rhetoric.
He demanded that the Supreme Court should take notice of the ECP’s ‘insulting statement’ of the commission regarding the judiciary and should immediately seek an answer from the institution.
In a separate statement, the PTI spokesperson reacted to what it called the systematic campaign of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) leadership to harass the judiciary, especially the Peshawar High Court (PHC) judges. “A group with a history of attacks on the state institutions, especially the judiciary, has once again attacked the courts after seeing the remaining signs of justice. The nation is well aware of the past and present of this group . . . and is well aware of their nefarious designs for the future,” the PTI spokesperson said in a statement issued here.
Not only the PHC, he noted, but every judge who is not willing to be part of any extra-constitutional and legal series and only wants to keep the knowledge of justice high will come under their wrath.
Meanwhile, the PTI spokesperson strongly condemned the caretaker government for physical and psychological torture of PTI’s senior leader Shah Mehmood Qureshi during his “unlawful detention”, demanding strict accountability of those involved in the “brutal act”.
He demanded that cases should be registered against the Punjab Police IG, jail IG, chief secretary, Rawalpindi deputy commissioner and police personnel involved in the violence.
He stated that Qureshi had been elected as a member of Parliament five times and remained foreign minister in different periods, who fought the case of Pakistan in a befitting manner at global stage.
The spokesperson pointed out that Qureshi was one of the most reliable and seasoned politicians of the country who was also the vice chairman of the country's largest political party, adding that he was being targeted for his unwavering and unflinching commitment with PTI Founding Chairman Imran Khan and the political philosophy and programme of the party.
Separately, the spokesperson alleged that the PTI candidates were facing a spree of detentions, abductions and harassments and same was happening to their seconders and proposers.
According to the PTI Central Media Department, the gravity of the situation could be judged from the fact that the women seconder and proposer for PTI district Attock President and candidate for PP-01 Hazro Attock Qazi Ahmad Akbar were kidnapped, besides the election staff continued to harass the PTI candidates illegally during the process of scrutiny of their nomination papers.
