Jailed former Pak PM Imran Khan's party faces more objections to intra-party polls

Islamabad: Pakistan's election commission has taken up another case against jailed former prime minister Imran Khan's party, questioning its status as it has not conducted proper elections for five years and has no organisational structure.

A five-member bench of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) headed by Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja on Tuesday noted that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) had conducted intra-party elections afresh after Supreme Court and ECP directives but the objections to the polls needed to be clarified, ECP Director Gene­ral (Political Finance) Masood Akhtar has informed the party without sharing further details.

The objections regarding the appo­intment of the party chairman and its general body meeting were later shared with the respondents, Dawn News reported.

The document shared with Khan's PTI questioned the status of the party, which has not conducted proper elections for five years, and has no organisational structure as well as a poll symbol.

The ECP has also asked the party why action should not be taken against the party under Section 208(5) of the Elections Act, 1997.

Section 208(5) says: “Where a political party fails to conduct intra-party elections as per given time frame in their constitution, a show-cause notice shall be issued to such political party and if the party fails to comply, then the Commission shall impose a fine which may extend to Rs 200,000 but shall not be less than Rs 100,000.” PTI chairman Gohar Khan told reporters outside the ECP office the intra-party election was conducted on March 3 and a notification to this effect was also issued the next day, yet they had not been issued a certificate.

Gohar maintained they would respond to any objections raised by the political finance wing of the commission but informed the bench that details of the objections had not been shared with the party.

Gohar said the party had already put this information on social media but the ECP simply sent a notice stating that there were objections to the intra-party elections.

He added that if the observations or objections were shared with the party, only then they will be able to reply to them duly.

He said there were as many as 175 political parties in Pakistan and none of them held intra-party elections as per the Constitution, “whereas we conducted intra-party elections in the light of the orders of the Election Commission and the Supreme Court”.

About Sunni Ittehad Council chairman Hamid Raza’s warning that party members would quit parliament if PTI founder Imran Khan was not released from jail, the PTI chairman explained that Raza had talked about “considering the option” of resignation.

Separately, Gohar on Tuesday announced that his party had finalised Sher Afzal Marwat’s name for the slot of all-powerful Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairman, ending the infighting in the ranks of the former ruling party.

The PTI chairman said: “All disputes are over [now] as the party has picked the name of Marwat for the slot.” Last week, PTI Secretary General and Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Omar Ayub Khan said Marwat should be the chairman of PAC as he was named by the 71-year-old cricketer-turned-politician.

Earlier names of Hamid Khan and Hamid Raza of the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) made headlines in the media for the PAC top slot.

Categorically rejecting media reports claiming PTI formed a committee to hold talks with the military establishment, Gohar said: “Neither we have backdoor contacts nor in talks with anyone.” The PTI chairman maintained that as far as dialogue was concerned, it should be held “with everyone”.

However, he claimed that currently, his party was not holding talks with anyone.

Speaking to Geo News, PTI senior leader Shehryar Afridi last week claimed that his party would hold "dialogues with the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) and the Director General of the Inter-Services Intelligence (DG ISI) soon" instead of talking to "rejected people" who reached parliament via "Form 47", referring to the current government led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

Responding to another query, Gohar said Imran’s release "is very important” and added that they were trying to get the former prime minister released from jail before Eid ul Fitr.

“The PTI founder will be released from Adiala Jail in May and will be among the people,” he claimed.