ISLAMABAD, Oct 22 (NNI): Chairman Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Barrister Gohar Ali Khan on Tuesday said that the party had submitted all documents to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) which the latter had demanded from it in the intra-party elections case.
“We have also answered all questions asked by the election commission,” he said while speaking to reporters outside the ECP building in federal capital after the hearing of the PTI’s intra-party case, he hoped that the commission would now issue a certificate to the PTI declaring its intra-party elections valid.
“The PTI held intra-party elections more transparently as compared to other parties, even the Supreme Court of Pakistan has accepted our intra-party elections in the verdict of reserved seats,” he remarked.
Barrister Gohar said that the parliamentary committee had asked the PTI to give names for the committee tasked with the appointment of the new chief justice by 7:00 in the evening. “But our political committee decided that the party will not become part of the process since we deem it unconstitutional from the outset.”
“We had made it clear even on the floor of the National Assembly that the PTI did not agree with these amendments,” the PTI chairman said, adding, “That is why the committee decided to go for a boycott.”
He went on to say that the special committee had never taken up the proposal to form constitutional benches at the provincial level. “The suggestion came out of a sudden.”
“We filed a petition in the Lahore High Court (LHC) about the jurisdiction of the ECP in this case, this case is not under the jurisdictions of the ECP. I hope the issue will be resolved soon as the LHC has barred the ECP to pass any final order in the PTI intra-party election case,” he told.
“We answered whatever legal questions ECP raised regarding our intraparty elections, whatever documents the ECP asked we provided, it was told in the SC verdict that the MNAs were of the PTI and reserved seats were meant to be ours,” he added.
Barrister Gohar has also declared the 26th amendment illegal and decided not to become part of the parliamentary committee tasked with the appointment of new chief justice after the passage of 26th Constitutional Amendment.
“On the floor of the assembly we did not agree on anything, amendments are illegal,” he insisted. “In the special committee there was no proposal of the formation of constitutional benches at provincial level, this tweak came out of the blue,” he lamented.
Gohar declared the 26th amendment unconstitutional and illegal, and decided to boycott the parliamentary committee to appoint the next chief justice.
Earlier, a four-member bench of the ECP, headed by Member Sindh Nisar Durrani, adjourned the hearing of the PTI’s intra-party case until November 14.
PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan, Akbar S. Babar and Naveed Anjum appeared before the bench.
During the hearing, Barrister Gohar reminded the bench that a high court had barred the election commission from pronouncing a verdict in the case.
Member KP said the commission did not have the authority to order you to hold the elections again.
Akbar, on the occasion, said that the ECP could not order the PTI to hold fresh elections for five years.
PTI’s lawyer Faisal Chaudhry retorted that the party would prove all such statements wrong. NNI
