LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Wednesday rejected PML-Q leader Kamil Ali Agha’s plea against the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) decision to retain Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain as president of the party.

The LHC directed Mr Agha to approach the ECP with the plea as the commission had enough powers to decide the issue.

LHC Justice Shahid Karim said that looking into the election-related issues was not the prerogative of the courts and wrapped up the case after the petitioner agreed to approach the ECP.

Earlier, Agha had filed a petition with the court, seeking stay against the ECP decision to halt PML-Q intra-party polls for the slots of its president and secretary general.

Advocate Safdar Shaheen, representing the petitioner, stated that the party head Chaudhry Shujaat wrote a letter carrying illegal directives to the Punjab Assembly deputy speaker ahead of the election for Punjab chief minister’s office.

He said the party’s working committee had termed Mr Shujaat’s directives an undemocratic act and decided to remove him from the president’s slot.

He said the party workers had also staged a protest demo outside the house of Chaudhry Shujaat and condemned the letter.

He said the party chief was removed from the post and the central working committee announced election for the president’s office to be held on Aug 10.

The petitioner stated that the ECP suspended the decision to hold intra-party polls without citing the meeting of the central executive committee. He maintained that the ECP’s decision to bar intra-party election was illegal and, therefore, its execution should be halted immediately.

The ECP on Friday retained Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain as PML-Q chief, who filed an application seeking a bar on the intra-party elections.

Barrister Umar Aslam, representing Shujaat, submitted before the ECP that Mr Agha, who is PML-Q Punjab secretary general, chaired the party’s meeting illegally and later announced intra-party elections.

He said the provincial office-bearers of any political party could not announce intra-party polls, bypassing the party head and central secretary general, according to the rules. He stated that the intra-party elections were scheduled for Aug 10 without the permission of the party president and secretary general.

Multiple seats case: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Wednesday fixed for hearing a petition filed against PTI Chairman Imran Khan’s decision to contest elections on nine National Assembly (NA) seats.

Aman Taraqi Party Punjab President Advocate Mian Asif Mehmmod filed the petition and made federal government through the Cabinet Division secretary, Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar through the law secretary, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) through Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja, and Imran party tp the case.

He said it had become “a lacuna to contest election on multiple seats by the candidates in the general elections and demanded that there was need to address the issue terming it a clear case of political exploitation. He said Mr Khan, PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Aleem Khan had contested elections on more than one seat in the past.

He demanded that an amendment should be introduced in the constitution and a person should be bound to contest election for one seat.

The petitioner said as the ECP announced by-elections on nine seats, Mr Khan immediately announced his candidature for all the seats.

He said Mr Khan was already an MNA and he should not be allowed to contest the by-election against any seat. He said if Mr Khan won all the seats, he could retain just one seat and the national exchequer would have to face a huge financial loss.The petitioner said he was filing the application on the basis of public importance/interest to get the ambiguity in the law removed for the “larger interest of the nation”, adding that it needed to be heard in the “supreme interest of justice for the interest of the public at large”.

Furthermore, he requested the LHC to direct Imran not to contest any election of the parliament before the submission and acceptance of his resignation as an MNA.

The petition also called for a direction to be issued to the relevant respondents to amend the law so as to regulate the eligibility criteria of parliamentarians contesting the election.

Last week, the ECP had announced that by-elections on nine NA seats, vacated after PTI lawmakers’ resignation, will be held on September 25.

Justice Shahid Jamil Khan will hear the case on Thursday (today).

Published in Dawn, August 11th, 2022