LAHORE: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s election commission will not be able to hold intra-party elections on the party’s Foundation Day (April 25), as revealed by Jahangir Tareen, owing to ‘careful planning’ for the “first-ever mobile message-based election in the world.”

PTI chief election commissioner Tasneem Noorani on Thursday told Dawn that Imran Khan wanted the election on the party’s foundation day but completion of arrangements would take time.

“The election may be held a couple of weeks after the party foundation day,” he said.

Mr Noorani said the party membership campaign would end on March 31 and then the commission would display the voter lists and invite objections, complaints and appeals. Later, he said, the commission would invite nominations and announce the election schedule.

The PTI’s chief election commissioner said the commission had developed the technology for the SMS-based election and technology was now being tested by the world-class auditors. He said there would be a test-run of the new technology before the election.

Published in Dawn, March 18th, 2016