After receiving a last notice for the party’s refusal to organize intra-party elections, the chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) did not show up to appear before the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Friday in ISLAMABAD.
The ECP had warned the PTI head that, under Section 215 (5) of the Elections Act, 2017, his party could be deemed ineligible to get an election symbol for future polls if he did not appear before the commission as requested.
The ECP cited Section 209(1) of the Elections Act in arguing that all recognized political parties must report holding internal elections to the commission.
According to the PTI’s constitution, the party’s internal elections were set for June 13, 2021.
The commission gave Imran a show-cause notice in May of last year for failing to hold PTI intra-party elections while he was chairman.
In response to a plea by the PTI, the ECP pushed out the deadline for the party’s internal elections to June 13, 2022.
The former ruling party, however, did not manage to hold its internal elections by the new deadline.
In front of a panel led by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja, PTI’s lawyer Barrister Gohar Ali requested a postponement of the hearing instead of making any headway on the topic.
The attorney stated that the election record could not be provided since the PTI had conducted elections before the intra-party polling law was amended.
An ECP member then pointed out that the PTI head had written that the constitutional change had been passed on June 8 and that intra-party elections had been held on June 10.
The attorney later asked the governing body to postpone the hearing.
The CEC said that it had been stated in public announcements that the parties would respond if the commission served them with notices.
