Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Ali Nawaz Awan has moved the Islamabad High Court (IHC) for contempt proceedings against the Elections Commission of Pakistan (ECP) over its failure to hold local body elections in the federal capital on Saturday.
On Friday, the IHC instructed the ECP to hold local government elections in Islamabad on December 31.
The verdict, which IHC Justice Arbab Muhammad Tahir pronounced on petitions filed by PTI and Jamaat-i-Islami, quashed the electoral body’s notification regarding the postponement of the polls.
ECP said it was “practically impossible” to hold the election on such short notice, even within Islamabad alone. The federal government had filed an intra-court appeal against the IHC verdict.
Islamabad local body election
On Saturday morning, the government and ECP filed intra-court petitions against the verdict, but their pleas still need to be fixed for hearing.
Meanwhile, the PTI complained that aspirant voters had gathered outside polling stations in Islamabad, but the election staff was missing.
Subsequently, PTI leader Awan submitted a petition in court saying that the electoral body “deliberately disobeyed” the court’s directions.
Earlier, in a tweet, PTI chairman Imran Khan said that by not implementing the court orders, the ECP had proven that it was a “B team of the incumbent imported government and its backers”.
“The government fears the people and is running away from holding elections. The right to vote is a fundamental democratic norm, and PTI stands committed to it,” he said.
