ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Thursday granted leave to appeal to a petition filed on behalf of Prime Minister Imran Khan against a declaration that Akbar S. Babar — a founding but dissident member of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) — is still a member of the party.

Headed by Justice Mushir Alam, the two-judge Supreme Court bench, of which the other member is Justice Yahya Afridi, issued a notice to Mr Babar directing him to furnish a reply.

Senior lawyer Anwar Mansoor informed the court that Mr Babar was expelled from the party on Sept 26, 2011, but he contended that nowhere the notice for expelling him from the party had ever been shown.

Through the petition, the PM has challenged a Dec 4, 2019, Islamabad High Court (IHC) order which upheld the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) declaration that Mr Babar is a member of the party.

Earlier filed by Barrister Umaimah Anwar Khan on behalf of PTI chairman Imran Khan, the appeal pleads before the Supreme Court that the high court decision came without defining the ambit and power of the ECP. Rather the IHC indulged in fact finding, it added.

The ECP, the petition alleges, acted as a court of law or a tribunal and travelled beyond the scope of prayer. It extended its jurisdiction in matters of factual controversy, in contravention of the settled law. Thus by assuming the jurisdiction, the ECP gave a declaration in violation of law which was liable to be set aside being illegal, void ab initio and coram non judice, the petition argues.

Can the ECP treat any information received by it under Order 6(3) and (4) of the Political Parties Order 2002 (PPO) as adversarial form of complaint, the petition questions. It argues that the high court failed to consider the clear law laid down by the Supreme Court in the 2017 Hanif Abbasi case that information by a third party pertaining to the accounts of a political party can only be entertained subject to the condition that the information emanated from a credible and reliable source and was verifiable.

The petition says that the high court failed to acknowledge that the proceedings under Order 6 of the PPO are not dispute resolution between two parties, but inquisitorial proceedings.

The petition alleges that the high court ignored a pertinent question regarding the jurisdiction of the ECP and whether it exceeded in exercising its jurisdiction over the party membership status of Mr Babar.

When the membership of Mr Babar had been cancelled permanently in accordance with the law and he himself had shown antagonism in his clear declaration of parting ways with the party, can the ECP still, that too while sitting as an inquisitorial body for determining the question of the funding of a political party, declare Mr Babar a prominent member of the PTI, the petition wonders.

Published in Dawn, March 19th, 2021