Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja said on Thursday that concerns were made about internal elections held by other political parties as well, but those concerns were taken away.
There was a meeting with the petitions to overturn the results of the PTI’s intra-party elections. The CEC led a five-person Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) bench.
The lawyers for petitioners Raja Tahir Abbasi and Akbar S. Babar, a former founder member of the PTI who is no longer close to the party, wanted to throw out the party’s internal elections, saying they were held in a way that wasn’t open and honest.
A lawyer and senator for the PTI named Barrister Ali Zafar replied that the party’s internal elections were held based on instructions from the ECP.
He also said that the new PTI head was chosen in line with the law and the Constitution.
Lawyers for the petitioners said that the PTI had only named the panel in its submission and not the votes.
The ECP Sindh member asked how the party could talk about the votes when their judges were chosen without any competition.
The person who sent the plea, Babar, asked that the PTI’s internal elections be held again with the ECP watching over them.
Mehmood Khan and Saba Zahid, two lawyers who were representing other applicants, agreed with Babar’s idea.
The lawyer for the PTI said that the party’s constitution said that there was no need to vote if a single group came out.
A member of the ECP from Punjab named Babar Hassan Bharwana asked Zafar if all of this was written in the PTI’s constitution.
The lawyer for the PTI said yes and read out loud Article 5 of the party’s constitution, which had the answer.
He also said that the ECP had not recognized the change that the PTI had made to its constitution so that the polls could be held by show of hands.
Zarif also said that the PTI held its own elections within the party in line with its 2019 constitution and the ECP’s order.
The ECP bench put off hearing the case until Monday, after all the petitioners’ points about the PTI elections within the party were over.
The CEC said at the last hearing that the PTI hadn’t held intra-party elections in five years and that these polls were only held because the ECP told them to be.
He asked the bench to first decide if the cases against the PTI’s internal elections could even be heard.
He said that the PTI had doubts about the ECP’s order to hold polls within the party.
The party did hold these polls, though, as it was told to do. He said that within seven days of the poll, the ECP should have given the party a certificate.
“The seven-day period is over today, so the ECP can’t put off the certification any longer.”
He said, “The ECP should give us our certificate right away.” He also said that the delay was hurting the reputation of the commission.
