- Barrister Ali Zafar files 29-page reference on behalf of party’s Secretary General Omar Ayub
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Saturday filed a reference against the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and the ECP members in the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC), alleging that they had failed to fulfill their constitutional responsibility of conducting free and fair elections.
Senator Barrister Ali Zafar has filed the reference 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 the 29-page reference.
The PTI has pleaded for inquiry of misconduct against the chief election commissioner and the election commission’s members, seeking the CEC and the commission’s members should be removed from their offices if the charges are substantiated.
CEC Sikander Sultan 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) have been 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’.
