Asad Umar retracts apology tendered to ECP

ISLAMABAD: In a surprise move, just a day after having tendered an apology in writing to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in a contempt case, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Secretary General Asad Umar Wednesday announced to retract the apology and said an amended reply to the show-cause notice issued to him will be filed.

In a statement issued by the PTI Central Media Department, Umar said that he sticks to his criticism over the partiality of the ECP, which was based on facts and substantiated with solid arguments and that he instructed the legal team to file an amended reply, omitting the the ‘paragraph creating ambiguity’.

The senior party leader maintained that when he asked his lawyers about the matter, they explained to him that legally speaking, it was not an apology. However, he made it clear, “Whatever legal language had been used (by my lawyers in the reply), I stand by my words about the ECP that it is clearly a party and not acting as an impartial constitutional body”.

He contended to have had earlier stated with arguments that the Election Commission's decision in the foreign funding case was contrary to the facts and against the law, adding the ECP had no mandate to try someone in contempt.

Then, he pointed out that Article 204 of the Constitution confers the powers only to the Supreme Court and the high courts. He also noted the Supreme Court, in the Hanif Abbasi case, had made it clear that the ECP was not a court.

However, the reply, which was submitted to the electoral body a day earlier, on his behalf, reads, “If this Commission feels that the statements made are in the nature that amounts to contempt, the Applicant/Alleged Contemner places himself at the mercy of the Commission, and states that he is sorry for the statements made and that he may be excused and the proceedings dropped”.