ISLAMABAD: The poll body has said it has taken a “lenient view” over the delay on part of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan in the submission of the returns of his expenses incurred during by-elections on seven National Assembly seats he won last year - as the electoral watchdog has officially declared the former prime minister victorious on all these seats.
“The commission by taking [a] lenient view, accepts the applications for condonation coupled with the verbal request of the counsel of the respondent candidate and the grounds mentioned in the written reply, condones the delay and direct that notification of the returned candidate may be issued from all the constituencies from which he has emerged as returned candidate as he has submitted the return of election expenses from all the constituencies.” read a six-page order issued by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Thursday.
A three-member ECP bench headed by Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja and comprising Nisar Ahmed Durrani and Shah Muhammad Jatoi heard the case and announced the verdict that was reserved earlier.
The PTI chief, under the relevant electoral law, was required to submit the details of election expenses within 10 days from the date of the by-polls.
Section 98(3) of the Elections Act 2017 provides that every returned candidate shall, within 10 days from the poll of an election, submit a return of election expenses under Section 134 and the commission shall not notify in the official gazette the result of a returned candidate who fails to submit their return of election expenses.
Section 134 (2) of the same law states that the return of election expenses of the returned candidate and contesting candidate(s) shall be submitted to the returning officer.
Under these laws, the electoral body withheld the notifications of Khan as returned candidate on the seven NA seats.
The PTI chief, in his defence in the case, contended through his counsel that the delay in filing the expenses details was not intentional, and that he was “busy in party affairs and also due to firing incident and got injured during long march and is still bedridden.”
The defence lawyer appeared before the ECP and informed that the respondent later submitted returns of all the election expenses from all the seven constituencies along with detailed vouchers.
On October 16 last year, the PTI chief clinched victory on six NA seats—NA-22 Mardan, NA-24 Charsadda, NA-31 Peshawar, NA-108 Faisalabad, NA-118 Nankana Sahib and NA-239 Korangi. On October 30, he won his seventh seat in the by-election in NA-45 Kurram.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023