LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Tuesday overruled a registrar office’s objection to a petition of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) against the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) order for an inquiry into its intra-party polls.

PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Khan had filed the petition through Advocate Uzair Karamat Bhandari.

Justice Chaudhry Muhammad Iqbal took up the petition as an “objection case” and observed that the court will decide the fate of the office’s objection on the judicial side.

The judge instructed the office to fix the petition for hearing on Wednesday (today). The registrar office questioned the maintainability of the petition before the LHC on the point of territorial jurisdiction.

It said the petitioner should have approached the Islamabad High Court since the impugned order was passed by the ECP Islamabad office.

The PTI petition questioned the ECP’s jurisdiction to hold an inquiry into the party`s polls. It also objected to the failure to return the items seized during a raid on the PTI’s office by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).

The ECP had rejected the PTI’s pleas, ruling that the commission had the powers to regulate the intra-party polls.

It said the Elections Act 2017 mandates that a political party registered with the ECP must periodically elect its office-bearers at the federal, provincial and local levels in accordance with the party`s constitution.

The ECP had instructed the PTI to approach the competent court of law for the return of files, computers, hard drives, etc seized by the FIA.

The commission had also rejected a PTI plea for staying the proceedings of intra-party election matter till announcement of a detailed judgement by the Supreme Court in the reserved seats case.

The ECP observed that the PTI had already delayed the matter and violated various provisions of the Elections Act 2017.

Published in Dawn, September 11th, 2024