LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League Quaid-i-Azam (PML-Q) leader Kamil Ali Agha on Saturday filed a petition with the Lahore High Court (LHC), seeking a stay to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) decision to halt intra-party polls for the slots of president and secretary general.

Advocate Safdar Shaheen, representing Mr Agha, filed the petition, stating the party head Chaudhry Shujaat wrote a letter carrying illegal directives to the Punjab Assembly deputy speaker ahead of the election for Punjab chief minister’s office.

He said the party’s working committee had termed Mr Shujaat’s directives an undemocratic act and decided to remove him from the president’s slot.

He said the party workers had also staged a protest demo outside the house of Chaudhry Shujaat and condemned the letter.

He said the party chief was removed from the post and the central working committee announced election for the president’s office to be held on Aug 10.

The petitioner stated that the ECP suspended the decision to hold intra-party polls without citing the meeting of the central executive committee.

He maintained that the ECP’s decision to bar intra-party election was illegal and therefore its execution should be halted immediately.

The ECP on Friday retained Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain as PML-Q chief, who filed an application seeking bar on intra-party elections.

Barrister Umar Aslam, representing Chaudhry Shujaat, submitted before the ECP that Mr Agha, who is PML-Q Punjab secretary-general, chaired the party’s meeting illegally and later announced intra-party elections.

He said the provincial office-bearers of any political party could not announce intra-party polls bypassing the party head and central secretary-general according to the rules.

He stated that the intra-party elections were scheduled for Aug 10 without the permission of the party president and secretary general.

Published in Dawn, August 7th, 2022