PESHAWAR: Peshawar High Court on Tuesday temporarily stopped Election Commission of Pakistan from passing any final adverse order against Chief Minister Mohammad Sohail Afridi in the proceedings started by it regarding alleged violation of election code of conduct by him during by-elections in Haripur in Nov last year. A bench consisting of Justice Syed Arshad Ali and Justice Mohammad Faheem Wali, however, allowed ECP to proceed with the matter.

“In the meanwhile, the respondent, Election Commission of Pakistan, may proceed with the matter; however, it shall not pass any final order adverse to the petitioner (Sohail Afridi) till further orders,” the bench ordered.

It also issued notice to ECP, seeking its comments within a fortnight in a petition filed by the chief minister against ECP proceeding on the matter without first deciding the issue of its jurisdiction and maintainability.

Next date of hearing the matter will be fixed later.

CM challenges commission proceedings without deciding question of its jurisdiction

In Nov last year, the chief minister and candidate Shehrnaz Omar Ayub, supported by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf in the by-election, had challenged issuance of notices to them by ECP for allegedly violating election code of conduct.

The chief minister had challenged the notice issued to him on Nov 20 by ECP, wherein he had been accused of delivering provocative speech against government functionaries in connection with by-elections in NA-18 Haripur.

ECP claimed that the speech of chief minister was contrary to the code of conduct issued by the commission for by-election, for which polling was held on Nov 23. Mr Afridi has requested the high court to declare as illegal and set aside the impugned notice issued to him on Nov 20 by ECP.

However, the high court had turned down both those petitions observing that so far no adverse order had been passed against the petitioners. “The impugned proceedings are aimed at inquiring into the allegations of violation of the code of conduct/offence under the Act. The inquiry is at a very initial stage,” the court had ruled.

“Suffice it to hold that, at present, the petitions are premature and do not call for interference by this court, as no adverse order has been passed against the petitioners so far. Nevertheless, we expect that ECP, in the first instance, will determine its jurisdiction in the matter before proceeding further with the inquiry,” the court had observed.

Advocate Bashir Khan Wazir appeared for the chief minister on Tuesday and contended that ECP had fixed the matter for hearing on Tuesday (Jan 27). He said that the impugned notice was issued to the petitioner accusing him of misuse of powers which by itself was a hearsay allegation against the chief minister of the province.

He argued that the petitioner was chief minister of the province and ever since he had assumed office he had been addressing public meetings in different areas. He stated that the petitioner had addressed a public gathering in Havelian (Abbottabad), which was not in the constituency NA-18.

He said that ECP stated in the impugned notice, issued under section 234 of Elections Act 2017, that the petitioner had hurled threats at state functionaries. He contended that the high court in its earlier order had mentioned that ECP would first decide its jurisdiction in the matter.

However, he said that they had learned that instead of first deciding issue of its jurisdiction, ECP intended to decide the same with the main case.

Published in Dawn, January 28th, 2026