ISLAMABAD: A day after a revised list of political parties issued by the Election Commission of Pakistan showed Asfandyar Wali Khan as the Awami National Party president, the ECP on Thursday notified certificate of ANP’s intra-party elections conducted after a year’s delay.

Though the ‘updated’ list of political parties remains unchanged, the notification recognises Aimal Wali Khan as president of the party around three and a half months after the exercise.

The belated issuance of intra-party elections is yet another violation of the law on part of the ECP. Under Section 209 (1) of the Elections Act, a political party is required to submit to the ECP within seven days from completion of the intra-party elections, a certificate signed by an office-bearer authorised by the party head, to the commission to the effect that the elections were held in accordance with the constitution of the political party and this act to elect the office-bearers at the federal, provincial and local levels, wherever applicable.

The sub-section 3 of Section 209 reads: “The Commission shall, within seven days from the receipt of the certificate of a political party under sub-section (1), publish the certificate on its website.”

‘Updated’ list of parties on commission’s website still shows Asfandyar as party head

On Jan 13, the ECP had allowed the ANP to contest polls on its election symbol of “Lantern” despite its failure to fulfil the legal requirement of holding intra-party polls.

The development came a day after ECP delisted 13 political parties over their failure to meet the legal requirement. While announcing its reserved verdict, the ECP imposed a fine of Rs20,000 on the ANP with the direction to hold intra-party polls till May 10, some three months even after the Feb 8 general elections.

The order surprised many as under which law the ECP could allow one party, and not the other, to participate in general elections on its election symbol without holding intra-party election. Why the concession was not available to the PTI, they question.

The ECP had earlier noted that the ANP’s last intra-party polls were conducted in May 2019, and since the term of office-bearers was four years according to its constitution, the same had already expired over eight months back.

The verdict, which was reserved on Dec 21, 2023, on the intra-party polls of ANP, was announced on the last date for allocation of symbols to the contesting candidates by the returning officers.

Sections 208, 209 and 210 of the Elections Act, 2017, had been invo-ked to delist over a dozen political parties for the failure to meet the legal requirement to be eligible to get poll symbols.

A five-member bench of the ECP, headed by Chief Election Commis­sioner Sikandar Sultan Raja, had earlier turned down the ANP’s plea for a six-month time for conduct of intra-party elections, leaving a hint that ANP might not be able to contest the upcoming general election with its poll symbol. Even the list of election symbols sent to the returning officers also did not include the symbol of “Lantern”.

Published in Dawn, August 23rd, 2024