ISLAMABAD: Jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has submitted a reference to the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) against the chief and members of the electoral body, alleging that they failed to fulfill their constitutional responsibility of conducting free and fair elections, local media reported on Saturday.
The reference was filed by Senator Barrister Ali Zafar on behalf of the opposition leader in the National Assembly and PTI Secretary General, Omar Ayub.
The ECP “deliberately violated this constitutional obligation, responsibility and duty under Article 224 and failed to hold elections to the National Assembly and provincial assemblies of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) within 90 of holding elections,” read a 29-page complaint document.
The party is calling for an inquiry into alleged misconduct by the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and ECP members and is seeking their removal from office if the charges are substantiated.
CEC Raja, ECP members including Babar Hassan Bharwana from Punjab, Nisar Ahmed Durrani from Sindh, Shah Muhammad Jatoi from Balochistan, and Justice (retd) Ikramullah Khan from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) were made respondents in the complaint.
Barrister Ali Zafar accused the election commission of repeatedly violating the constitution. “The commission failed to conduct elections in Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and the National Assembly within the constitutionally mandated 90-day period,” he said.
Zafar also alleged that the election commission had shown bias against PTI and made decisions that aimed to exclude PTI’s founder from the political arena.
He claimed that the commission had unjustly rejected PTI’s intra-party elections and only audited PTI’s accounts in the prohibited funding case.
Furthermore, Zafar criticized the commission for unlawfully revoking PTI’s election symbol, the ‘bat’.
