The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday rejected estranged PPP leader Naheed Khan's petition seeking the PPP's title for her party. The petition was heard by a two-member bench consisting of Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb, which had reserved its judgement on January 24.
On Monday the court announced the judgment, rejecting Ms Khan's plea seeking the PPP's title for her party. PPP General Secretary Nayyar Bukhari appeared before the bench. The court decided the case in favour of the incumbent PPP leadership. It is to be mentioned here that estranged PPP leaders including Naheed Khan and Safdar Abbasi had challenged the results of the party's March 2013 intra party elections before the ECP.
After their initial petition was dismissed by the ECP, Ms Khan had challenged the results before the IHC in May 2013. The PPP General Secretary Syed Nayyar Hussain Bokhari informed the court that the party had recently conducted intra-party elections and was in the process of submitting details to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). Having remained a close associate of slain PPP leader Benazir Bhutto throughout her political career, Naheed Khan claimed to be the president of PPP Workers and got registered with the ECP under the Political Parties' Order 2002.
Ms Khan's petition was based on a reply submitted by the PPP's counsel in February 2013 in the dual offices case of former President Asif Ali Zardari. She contended that the reply had declared the PPP was not a political party but a non-governmental organisation. The petition claimed that the party had become unpopular under Mr Zardari's leadership.