MUZAFFARABAD: The Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Supreme Court on Thursday deferred hearing on the Election Commission’s application seeking ex parte ad interim relief against a high court order directing the provisional registration of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) as a political party.

A full court bench comprising Chief Justice Raja Saeed Akram, Justice Raza Ali Khan and Justice Khalid Yousaf Chaudhary ruled that the application would be heard along with the Election Commission’s Petition for Leave to Appeal (PLA) after completion of the latter’s scrutiny in the court registry.

On June 23, the AJK High Court had directed the Election Commission to provisionally register PTI as a political party, effectively suspending the commission’s May 16 decision rejecting the party’s registration application.

Challenging that order, the Election Commission filed a PLA in the Supreme Court along with an application under Rules 1 and 2 of Order VI of the Supreme Court Rules, 1978, seeking ex parte ad interim relief during the pendency of the appeal.

At the previous hearing on June 29, PTI counsel Yasir Safeer Mughal had sought an adjournment, saying he had not been properly prepared to argue the case. Thereupon, Chief Justice Akram had ordered that the operation of the high court’s June 23 order, to the extent of the interim relief granted to PTI, would remain in abeyance until July 2.

When the matter came up on Thursday, the top court ordered that the commission’s application would be heard together with the PLA. Immediately, no date for the hearing was fixed.

However, with the Supreme Court commencing its summer recess on Monday, which will continue until Oct 7, the case is unlikely to be taken up before the elections, effectively leaving the legal status of PTI’s provisional registration unresolved during the electoral process.

Published in Dawn, July 3rd, 2026