Gohar not PTI chairman in record, ECP tells SC

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Thursday approached the Supreme Court (SC) for guidelines about 41 independent members to implement the July 12 decision on the reserved seats.

The ECP submitted an application to the SC Registrar’s Office, stating that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) had no party structure in the commission records and Barrister Gohar Ali Khan was not the party chairman.

It said that 41 Members of National Assembly (MNAs) had submitted their documents regarding the party affiliation with an indication that the PTI would confirm it. However, in the absence of any party structure in the ECP records, the commission did not know who would confirm the party affiliation of independent members.

However, the ECP partially implemented the SC judgment on reserved seats by issuing a notification to recognise 39 returned candidates as PTI MNAs.

About the ECP decision to seek guidance from the SC, an official explained the problem was that the PTI had lost party structure as it failed to conduct intra-party elections; therefore, owing to legal deficiencies in the intra-party polls, the ECP had declared the same as invalid and as a legal consequence it also lost the election symbol.

The 39 MNAs who have been notified include Amjad Ali Khan, Saleem Rehman, Sohail Sultan, Muhammad Bashir Khan, Mehboob Shah, Junaid Akbar, Ali Khan Jadoon, Asad Qaiser, Shahram Khan, Mujahid Ali, Anwar Taj, Fazal Muhammad Khan, Arbab Amir Ayub, Shandana Gulzar Khan, Sher Ali Arbab, Asif Khan, Syed Shah Ahad Ali Shah, Shahid Khan, Nasim Ali Shah and Sher Afzal Khan.

Similarly, those notified also include Usama Ahmed Mela, Shafqat Abbas, Ali Afzal Sahi, Rai Haider Ali Khan, Nisar Ahmed, Rana Atif, Changaze Ahmad Khan, Muhammad Ali Sarfraz, Khurram Shahzad Virk, Sardar Muhammad Latif Khan Khosa, Rai Hassan Nawaz Khan, Malik Muhammad Aamir Dogar, Makhdoom Zain Hussain Qureshi, Rana Muhammad Faraz Noon, Mumtaz Mustafa, Muhammad Shabbir Ali Qureshi, Umber Majeed, Awais Haider Jakhar and Zartaj Gul.

Meanwhile, the Lahore High Court (LHC) Thursday declared as null and void a verdict allowing the physical remand of PTI founder Imran Khan in 12 May 9 cases.

A two-member bench comprising Justice Tariq Saleem Sheikh and Justice Anwarul Haq Pannu reserved the verdict on the petitions challenging the former prime minister’s physical remand. The high court also declared the notification of PTI founder’s appearance via video-link null and void. During the hearing on Thursday, Justice Saleem said the suspect could not be forced to undergo photogrammetry test. Meanwhile, Justice Pannu questioned the prosecutor when he got the idea “we should move towards the modern devices now”.

Prosecutor General Farhad Ali Shah told the court that the facility to conduct the photogrammetry test had been provided in the jail, and it would be an injustice not to give prosecution a full chance. “In the end, the prosecution is blamed that it failed,” Shah added.

The prosecutor told the court the investigation would be impossible without the recovery of mobile phone through which tweets were posted and WhatsApp messages were sent.

At this, Justice Pannu asked how the mobile will be recovered when the suspect was in jail.

The PTI founder had filed petitions against the anti-terrorism court (ATC) verdict, saying that it did not assess the records properly when granting police Khan’s physical remand. An ATC in Lahore last week had approved a 10-day physical remand of the PTI founder in 12 cases related to the May 9 riots.

He was remanded in five cases of the Sarwar Road police station, three cases of Gulberg police station and one case each of Race Course, Shadman, Mughalpura and Model Town police stations.

Also, LHC’s Justice Tariq Saleem Shaikh objected to the absence of PTI founder’s signature on the power of attorney during the hearing on a petition filed against ‘supposed’ handing over of his custody to the army. The judge returned the application while upholding the registrar office’s objection and directed the petitioner’s counsel to remove the objection. Barrister Salman Safdar took the stand in the petition that there were rumours about transferring PTI founder’s custody from the civilian authorities to the military authorities. He requested that the custody of PTI’s founder should remain with the civilian authorities.

Separately, PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan Thursday said his party was going to emerge as the biggest party in the country and today it had also become a parliamentary party. He said that opponents used to call for a ban on the PTI, but today the SC decision was implemented and the PTI became a parliamentary party and the government had now lost its two-thirds majority.

“We have confirmed our assembly members from across the country and we will once again emerge as a parliamentary party in all the four houses,” he added.

Speaking to the media outside the Parliament House, he said that according to the SC directions, the Election Commission had started the implementation process as 39 members had been notified. He explained that 40 of the remaining 41 had submitted their affidavits, whereas 41 members had also been confirmed by the Election Commission and it was hoped that the ECP would also issue their notification. The PTI chairman said that 107 of Punjab, 91 of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and 9 of Sindh MPs had also submitted their affidavits. “We will submit the priority list of reserved seats for minorities and women in the Election Commission tomorrow [Friday],” he added.