ECP to decide fate of 51 PTI councillors

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has initiated the process of dealing with the references sent by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) against 51 of its councillors for allegedly not voting for the party’s nazims and deputy nazims in the recently-held local bodies polls in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
A number of PTI councillors defied the party line during the electoral process and so did some of its members of parliament and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, who also worked against their party’s candidates running for the election of nazim and naib nazim.
This cost the party dearly: it lost the election in Mansehra (hometown of PTI Senator Azam Swati), Shangla and Swat, from where it had got elected Murad Saeed, MNA, who faces a question mark over his degree from the Peshawar University. From Swat, five of PTI candidates had also returned to the provincial assembly in the 2013 general election: they are Fazal Hakim, Haider Ali, Amjad Ali, Mohibullah and Azizullah. But the party lost the election of district nazim and naib nazim.
The Election Commission has referred the disqualification references to its Legal Wing, which will issue notices to the concerned PTI officials as well as the councillors shortly. “As per the law, references were sent to both the concerned naib nazims and the Election Commission.
However, after none of the naib nazims evinced interest in these references within three days, it automatically became an issue to be handled now by the Election Commission,” the ECP sources explained.
“The Election Commission will not decide these references without hearing the two sides and the process on this count has been initiated,” said a senior official at the ECP Secretariat here when The News approached him for comment on the matter.
After the task of conducting the local bodies polls was assigned to the Election Commission, this is the first issue that has been referred to it.
PTI’s Central Information Secretary Naeemul Haq told this correspondent that the party wanted their disqualification for they had voted against the candidates the party had fielded in the election of nazims and naib nazims.
Asked about the action against other PTI heavyweights, including Senator Azam Swati, an MNA and two MPAs, who were served show-cause notices for not supporting PTI candidates and instead backing other candidates of their choice, the information secretary said a committee was looking into the issue and would forward recommendations on the possible action against them.