PTI submits details of intra-party polls to ECP

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Monday submitted ‘all the required documents’ of the intra-party in the Election Commission of Pakistan, urging for issuance of the certificate at the earliest.

Newly-elected chairman of PTI Barrister Gohar Ali Khan shared the information on his X account. “All required documents of intra-party elections were filed before ECP today. As general election schedule is to be announced anytime soon. ECP ought to publish our certificate at the earliest this time” he wrote on his social media account.

PTI founder Akbar S Babar has already announced to challenge the ‘controversial elections’ in the Election Commission this week. Separately, PTI founder Akbar Sher Babar has reached out to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan after a gap of 10 years through a video message. Babar said in the message that a transparent election commission should be formed by cancelling the intra-party elections immediately. He told Imran that election rules and voters’ lists should be given in line with the party constitution, as the party’s founding leaders and workers were deprived of basic constitutional and legal rights. “Why the activists who face sticks and suffer jails for you are being deprived of the democratic and constitutional right to vote, Babar asked Imran.

Babar contended that the party has to be run according to the Constitution. “Founder Chairman is in jail, so I am releasing a video message. If you don’t run PTI according to the constitution, the party will suffer from legal problems. In August 2002, I had applied to the Election Commission for the bat symbol,” Babar recalled. He told Imran in the message that he went to the party’s central office, and sought nomination papers, voters’ list, election rules and regulations but none of these things were present, including the staff. These basic requirements are necessary for every election. “PTI is more vulnerable due to fake elections. The founder leader wants and your first cousin Saeedullah Niazi also want to participate in intra-party elections. The party leaders and workers were deprived of their basic constitutional rights,” Babar said.

Meanwhile, PTI reacted strongly to caretaker Federal Information Minister Murtaza Solangi’s statement on intra-party elections, and said this confirmed his biased role.

“The sole constitutional responsibility of the caretaker government is to conduct fair and transparent elections in which the current setup has failed and has become an ‘unconstitutional’ and ‘illegal’ caretaker government,” a party spokesman said. He added that Solangi has no constitutional and moral justification for making statements against the internal affairs of any political party. He noted PTI is the only political party in the country which has rejected the concept of dynasty in politics and introduced capable and new faces.

He charged the caretaker government of failing miserably at all levels, from holding general elections within the stipulated time of the Constitution to providing an equal environment to political parties. Murtaza Solangi, instead of teaching democracy to the PTI, should look at the duties assigned to the caretaker government in the constitution and try to implement them.

PTI’s Azad Kashmir President and ex-premier AJK Sardar Abdul Qayyum Niazi expressed full confidence in the ‘newly-elected’ chairman of the party Barrister Gohar Ali Khan. Abdul Qayyum and other members of the delegation met the PTI chairman here at the party’s Central Secretariat. Azad Kashmir PTI delegation included central leader Chaudhry Abdul Hameed Pothi and other members. They discussed in detail the current political situation and preparations for the upcoming general elections. PTI chief Imran Khan’s ‘comprehensive and effective Kashmir policy’ was also strongly supported.