ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) will take up on March 22 the hearing of 10 petitions including the one seeking disqualification of ex-PM Senator Yusuf Raza Gillani.
PTI’s MNA and Parliamentary Secretary Farrukh Habib and some other ruling party lawmakers had filed the petition in the Election Commission and one of the reasons for seeking Gillani’s disqualification was the emergence of video-clips, just a day ahead of Senate elections, allegedly concerning Gillani.
Similarly, the Election Commission’s five-member bench will also hear a petitioner, challenging the decision of the ECP’s Scrutiny Committee, auditing PTI’s foreign funding to keep the party’s financial documents secret. The Election Commission during the last hearing had accepted for hearing the petition seeking Gillani’s disqualification. It also had decided to issue notices to the former prime minister and his son Ali Haider Gillani over the video in which Ali was seen telling PTI MNAs how to waste a vote in Senate elections by over-writing and ticking in front of the names of all candidates on the ballot paper, and allegedly offering money and development funds to them against this.
The Election Commission had asked the PTI to include as respondents the names of two of its lawmakers, Jamil Ahmed and Fahim Khan, who were allegedly involved in the video. PTI lawyers had argued that the Supreme Court had directed that the elections be held in a transparent manner. It was also contended that Gillani's son had acknowledged that he was in the video and that it was the Election Commission's duty to stop corrupt people from entering the parliament. The PTI lawyers had also argued that the PTI's Fauzia Arshad had received more votes than Finance Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh in Senate elections to which the ECP member from Punjab replied that this was the beauty of democracy and secret voting.
The Election Commission of Pakistan will hold the hearing against the backdrop of an application filed by PTI foreign funding case petitioner Akbar S Babar, challenging the decision of the ECP Scrutiny Committee to keep the PTI accounts details secret.
Babar had filed the application under Sections 4 and 5 of the Election Act 2017 read with all enabling provisions of law for direction to implement the orders of the ECP vis-à-vis transparency and meaningful participation of the petitioner in the scrutiny process.
The Election Commission had issued notices to the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and the ECP Scrutiny Committee to appear before it on March 22 in relation to keeping secret the PTI foreign funding documents. The notices were issued on March 17, following the hearing of Babar’s complaint by a three-member bench of the ECP, headed by Justice (retd) Ms Irshad Qaiser. The petitioner's lawyer Ahmad Hassan Shah had challenged the committee decision before the bench and even invoked the Right to Information Act to seek access to the documents. He argued that access to PTI documents is a right of the petitioner ‘in light of Article 5(4) of the Political Parties Order 2002 as well as Section 203(5) of the Election Act 2017.
He emphasized that by keeping the documents secret, the Scrutiny Committee is violating the ToRs of the Scrutiny Committee that clearly demands scrutiny in the presence of both parties. Without access to all PTI accounts, he contended that the scrutiny process would remain a sham and a mere attempt to rubberstamp fake documents. The secrecy order of the Scrutiny Committee, he maintained, was illegal and unlawful as there was no provision of law, or any legal, equitable or judicious basis for keeping secret the dictates of Articles 4 and 10A of the Constitution of Pakistan 1973.
Later, talking to reporters outside the Election Commission, while referring to the government demand for the Election Commission to resign, Babar alleged that Premier Imran Khan feared that if the details of the concealed bank accounts came to light, it could reveal billions of rupees of illegal funding into the concealed PTI accounts. “This could open a Pandora's box leading to charges of money laundering, corruption and concealment of accounts against PM Imran Khan and others as they operated these accounts,” he had argued.
He urged the intervention of the Supreme Court of Pakistan with regard to this statement against the ECP. He said: “Pakistan is not a monarchy nor will we allow it to become one: Institutions must play their role to stop the drift towards anarchy”.
Moreover, the Election Commission full bench will be hearing an application filed by PTI MPAs Sindh Arsalan Taj and Rabia Azfar, seeking disqualification of PPP MPA Faryal Talpur on the basis of her suspension as lawmaker over increasing cases of dog-bites in her constituency by the Sindh High Court on Thursday.
