MUZAFFARABAD: The Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Election Commission on Friday asked Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur to appear before it later this month in connection with the hearing of allegations of violation of the code of conduct for the liberated territory’s 2021 general elections.

A notice, addressed to advocate Yasir Safeer Mughal, was issued by an official of the commission on Friday in accordance with the decision of Chief Election Commissioner retired Justice Abdul Latif Sulehria whereby he had dismissed a plea by Mr Gandapur’s counsel that the matter should be held in abeyance till the completion of the AJK’s top electoral body.

Gandapur’s lawyer says commission’s decision will be challenged in high court

In July 2021, while acting on an application by a local lawyer Raja Zulqarnain Abid, seeking contempt proceedings against Mr Gandapur for “constant violation of the code of conduct” for AJK polls, the election commission had slapped a ban on Mr Gandapur’s entry and subsequent participation in election-related activities in the area.

On February 14, the commission had issued a bailable warrant for Mr Gandapur’s arrest and directed Dera Ismail Khan’s deputy commissioner to execute it.

However, Mr Gandapur had avoided arrest by depositing a bail bond in the sum of Rs50,000 with one surety in the like amount before the authority executing the warrant. He had also appointed a three-member team of PTI affiliated Kashmiri lawyers, led by Mr Mughal, to present his viewpoint before the commission.

On last hearing on March 5, Mr Gandapur’s legal team had contended in the light of Article 50 of AJK’s interim Constitution that since the AJK election commission, which comprised the CEC and two members, was without any member at the moment its composition was “incomplete and defective” in the eyes of law and therefore it could not take cognizance of alleged contempt.

As the counsel had also applied for grant of exemption to Mr Gandapur from personal appearance before the commission, CEC Sulehria had declared that he would first like to address the issue of the competence of the commission to hear the contempt application in its present composition.

After hearing the counsel from both sides on Thursday, the CEC dismissed the plea regarding holding the proceedings in abeyance, for being “non-maintainable” and directed Mr Gandapur’s counsel to ensure his appearance “at all costs” at the next date of hearing on May 28.

Sardar Moteeb, one of the three lawyers representing Mr Gandapur, told Dawn that they would challenge the commission’s decision in the AJK high court.

Published in Dawn, May 4th, 2024