PTI’s estranged founding member, Akbar S. Babar, has urged the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to guarantee intra-party elections for all political parties before the upcoming general elections scheduled for February 8 next year.

Babar, who has challenged the results of PTI’s intra-party polls before the ECP, asserted this during an interview on DawnNewsTV programme “Doosra Rukh,” which was aired Friday night.

Babar had on Dec 5 approached the ECP against the party’s intra-party elections, alleging they were “rigged and fraudulent”. The polls had taken place earlier this month in accordance with the directives issued by the ECP, with Barrister Gohar Ali Khan elected as the new party chairman after being nominated by Imran Khan.

However, the party faced severe criticism for the polls, with Babar declaring his intention to legally challenge the entire process. He alleged that the PTI had orchestrated a selection process to eliminate party workers, handing control to a select few lawyers.

Separately, leaders from the country’s major parties, including the PML-N and PPP, also raised concerns about the legitimacy of the intra-party elections.

In an interview with Dawn News, Babar emphasised that he explicitly stated in his plea to the ECP the necessity of conducting intra-party polls across all political parties.

When asked if he preferred holding such polls before the general elections, he responded, “Why not?”

Babar added he had requested the ECP to implement the rules on all political parties “otherwise electoral exercise will prove to be recycling of old leadership that has failed”.

He said that competent and skilful individuals failed to make it to the “leadership row” because party structures typically hinder their progress in climbing the party ranks.

He demanded that the “bat symbol [of PTI] should be kept in abeyance” until fair intra-party polls were conducted by the party.

Plea against intra-party polls

In his plea against the PTI’s intra-party elections, Babar said that after the commission directed the party to hold the polls, the PTI core committee issued a press release saying that preparations were complete and announced Niazullah Niazi as the PTI CEC.

Babar said the press release made no mention of any other names of the PTI Federal Election Commission or share other details of the polls such as the election rules, regulations, detailed schedule of elections, nomination timeline and various other aspects.

He added that the press release also made no mention of the vote-counting process or the announcement of election results. Furthermore, no such information was available on the PTI website until polling day.

Babar said that on Dec 1, he visited the PTI Central Secretariat in Islamabad in the afternoon with other party members but the party representative present at the site had “expressed his helplessness in sharing the required information (nomination papers, voter lists and rules and regulations of the elections) as none existed”.

Commenting on the day of the election, Babar said: “A crowd of a few scores of people, without any prior authentication regarding their status in the party, were assembled in an undisclosed location in Peshawar who shouted: ‘We accept, we accept’.

“The charade was filmed and shown on national television. The same day before noon, the election results were announced to the media. All the candidates were elected unopposed,” he said.

Babar said that “in the absence of basic rules of elections […] the entire intra-party election was a mere eye wash and a vain attempt to hoodwink the ECP”.

He said the “fraudulent” process had “disenfranchised” PTI members from participating in the intra-party elections in clear violation of ECP laws.

Babar added that even representatives of independent organisations such as Pildat had expressed “serious reservations about the transparency” of the intra-party polls.

The founding PTI member said he was left with no other choice than to approach the electoral watchdog and request that it declare the intra-party elections “null and void” while also issuing fresh directives for holding new polls as soon as possible.

Considering the PTI’s “chequered history” in holding intra-party elections, Babar suggested that the ECP appoint independent third-party monitors to review and oversee the process.

Babar further said that the party’s election symbol of the bat be held in abeyance until it conducted transparent polls in accordance with the law.

“It is time that the charade of holding rigged and manipulated intra-party elections must end. All major political parties must be vigorously scrutinised under the relevant laws to allow credible and competent leadership to emerge from within political parties. This is the only way forward for democracy to deliver and meet the challenges confronting society,” he said.