ISLAMABAD: The Election Com­mission of Pakistan (ECP) has delisted the PTI’s intra-party elections case yet again owing to the unavailability of full bench.

The case, fixed for hearing on Thursday (today), received a second deferment within a week with the election watchdog saying the new date would be determined later.

The announcement came two days after Justice Munib Akhtar during the proceedings of a case in the Supreme Court highlighted that a “cascading series of errors of law” had been committed by the ECP that “forced” the PTI-backed candidates to take part in the Feb 8 elections as independents.

“All of these returned candidates were PTI candidates forced by cascading series of errors of law by the ECP to take on the garb of independents,” Justice Akhtar observed.

Full bench ‘not available’ to hear the matter

The PTI held intra-party elections on June 9, 2022, which were voided by the ECP in November 2023 after dragging the case for around one-and-a-half years. Non-availability of bench was cited as a reason behind the delay.

In its order passed on Nov 23, 2023, the ECP gave the former ruling party 20 days to go for fresh elections if it did not want to lose its electoral symbol — ‘bat’. The order came around two months before the Feb 8 elections when political parties had already started ratcheting up their campaigns.

The PTI, anxious to retain its iconic poll symbol, took less than 10 days to implement the ECP decision and held intra-party elections on Dec 2, 2023.

However, the ECP on Dec 22 voided that exercise too following an unprecedented microscopic examination of the inner workings of a political party and declared it ineligible for an election symbol.

The ECP held that the PTI secretary general could not have appointed a federal election commissioner to hold intra-party elections. Because of the ECP’s decision, the PTI candidates had to contest the general election as independents.

On March 3, 2024, the party had to hold its intra-party elections for a third time.

The ECP once again raised objections to the exercise and took up the matter for hearing without even sharing details of the objections.

On PTI’s objections, the ECP shar­­ed a questionnaire with the PTI, seeking information about the party’s intra-party elections and questioning the party’s status after ‘losing organisational structure and election symbol’.

About two weeks ago, the PTI submitted a detailed response to seven questions asked by the ECP, urging the watchdog to officially recognise the latest intra-party elections.

‘Active, functional party’

Party’s Chief Election Com­mis­sioner Raoof Hasan in his reply to the ECP said that PTI was an active and functioning political party enlisted with the ECP under Section 202 of the Elections Act, 2017.

“There is no provision in the Elections Act, 2017, or in the Election Rules, 2017, that an enlisted party would lose its ‘organisational structure’ after the expiry of five years if no intra-party elections are held within five years,” the response read. It said the PTI held its intra-party elections on June 9, 2022, but the ECP had directed on Nov 23, 2023, that intra-party elections had to be held under PTI’s ‘prevalent constitution’ (2019 constitution).

In order to hold these elections a meeting of the PTI’s general body was convened on Jan 31. The requisite approval was obtained from the general body, whereby an FEC was appointed to hold the intra-party elections as early as possible. On Feb 21, the ECP was informed about all the steps taken for holding the IPE.

It said the ECP affirmed on March 2 those steps and directed the party to hold the intra-party elections as per the PTI’s constitution. The intra-party elections were accordingly held on March 3 and relevant documents were provided to the ECP.

Hence, the PTI is an enlisted political party till date and as such it continues to exercise its rights under the relevant provisions of law, including Article 17 of the Constitution, Elections Act, 2017, and Election Rules, 2017, the PTI said.

Published in Dawn, June 6th, 2024