A security guard standing outside the Election Commission of Pakistan in Islamabad on September 21, 2023. Photo: AFP
The Election Commission of Pakistan has refused to recognize Barrister Gohar Ali Khan as Chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), in response to Gohar’s previously issued letter, stated that on November 13, he had requested that the affiliation of independent senators with the PTI be recognised.
The commission said the PTI inter-party election case is still pending and the party has obtained a stay order from the Lahore High Court (LHC). According to ECP, he cannot be recognized as PTI chairman and has no legal authority in this regard.
On 13 January 2024, a three-member SC bench upheld the ECP’s 22 December 2023 order declaring PTI’s intra-party polls invalid.
Later, the PTI candidates were to contest the February 8, 2024 general election as independents.
Read: “ECP eligible in case of 41 candidates”
Eighty such independent candidates reached the National Assembly and later joined the SIC in an apparent attempt to demand reserved seats for women and minorities. However, the ECP refused to allot the seats to the party, a decision which the SIC challenged in the Supreme Court.
On 12 July 2024, a full bench of the apex court by a majority of eight to five reinstated PTI as a parliamentary party, noting that 39 of the legislators who had submitted certificates of their affiliation with PTI along with their nomination papers were already PTI legislators.
Read more: Little chance of the CB upholding the decision on July 12
The SC ruled that the remaining 41 legislators who had not submitted the affiliation certificates at the time of submission of nomination papers could do so now within a period of 15 days.
The ruling coalition later filed a petition for review against the SC verdict, which the Constitutional Council took up in May.
