ISLAMABAD: Islamabad Police confiscated not only important legal and electoral record but also took away “even the items like water dispenser,” during a raid at the party’s central secretariat a day earlier, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) informed the poll entity on Tuesday.
In the hearing of PTI intra-party elections case, Chairman PTI Barrister Gohar Ali Khan told the ECP bench that the PTI was not in position to furnish the required information related to this case to the ECP, as, he said, its central office was raided by Islamabad Police which took away key legal and electoral documents.
The equipment including computers, laptops and other gadgets was taken in possession by the police that arrested PTI Information Secretary Raoof Hasan, Khan said.
ECP to hear PTI intra-party polls case today
“They did not spare even the items like water dispenser,” he said.
The PTI chief sought time from the bench for furnishing the required documents related to intra-party elections, which the bench allowed. The case was then adjourned for indefinite period.
Before the Supreme Court’s landmark reserved seats verdict, PTI’s right to participate in the elections mainly hinged on the ECP decision in intra-party polls case that has lost its significance in the aftermath of the top court’s decision in the reserved seats case, according to a senior retired ECP official.
“PTI would not be as much concerned about the outcome of intra-party elections case as it was before the SC decision. Election symbol or no election symbol, the political parties have been duly allowed by the apex court to contest the elections — which means PTI’s one of the greatest concerns related to the election symbol denial has been addressed,” the former Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) official told Business Recorder, requesting anonymity.
The SC, in the said verdict, declared that the “lack or denial of an election symbol does not in any manner affect the constitutional and legal rights of a political party to participate in an election (whether general or bye) and to field candidates and the commission is under a constitutional duty to act, and construe and apply all statutory provisions, accordingly.”
Generally, intra-party elections of the political parties have nothing more than symbolic value — and the ECP mostly accepts the related certificates submitted to it by the political parties regarding completion of the party polls, a mandatory requirement under the relevant election laws.
But, in case of the PTI intra-party polls, the matter has remained lingering since June 2022 with ECP having rejected the legality of these elections thrice.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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