ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) will resume the hearing of a case pertaining to PTI’s intra-party election on July 23.

A five-member ECP bench, headed by Chief Election Commi­ssioner Sikandar Sultan Raja, will take up the case after deferring the hearing twice since May.

This would be the first hearing since PTI’s chief election commissioner Raoof Hasan submitted a detailed reply to ECP’s seven major objections raised on the party’s internal elections exercise on March 3.

The electoral exercise almost four months ago was the third time PTI held internal elections in less than two years. The matter has been ongoing since June 9, 2022, when PTI held its intra-party elections, which were voided by the ECP in November 2023.

In its order, the ECP gave the former ruling party 20 days to hold fresh elections if it wanted to retain its election symbol of bat.

The ECP’s order had come at a time when general elections were about two months away and political parties were ratcheting up their campaigns across the country.

Anxious to retain its poll symbol, PTI held fresh intra-party elections on Dec 2, 2023, which were again declared void by the ECP 20 days later, following a first-of-its-kind microscopic examination of the inner workings of a political party.

The PTI was also declared ineligible to retain its election symbol in the upcoming general polls, a decision which resulted in a political storm as it formed the basis of the Supreme Court’s decision to deny PTI its election symbol.

The PTI candidates contested general elections as independents, and the party had to hold another election on March 3.

The ECP once again raised objections over the electoral exercise and took up the matter for hearing even without sharing details of the objections.

When the party objected, ECP finally shared a questionnaire with PTI’s lawyers in which the commission sought information about intra-party elections. The PTI has already responded to the questions in detail.

Published in Dawn, July 14th, 2024