PTI seeks intra-party election certificate from ECP

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Monday sought the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to issue the certificate of its intra-party election, ARY News reported.

PTI leader Barrister Gohar Ali Khan said that they came to the ECP office to obtain the certificate for the internal election conducted last month.

Expressing dismay over the delays in the issuance of the certificate, he said that parties who held elections after the PTI were issued certificates.

According to Barrister Gohar, there were no objections over the party’s internal election, saying that the ECP has not issued the certificate even after a month of the election.

The former ruling party conducted its internal polls on March 3 according to which Barrister Gohar Ali Khan was elected as the chairman unopposed again.

PTI’s Information Secretary, Raoof Hassan announced the results. Omar Ayub clinched the position of Central General Secretary unopposed, while Dr Yasmin Rashid secured the presidency of Punjab without facing any opposition.

It is pertinent to mention that the ECP on December 22, 2023, stripped Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf of its electoral symbol ‘bat’ symbol in a decision on founding member Akbar S Babar’s petition challenging the intra-party elections to be in line with the rules.

The PTI later approached the Supreme Court against the order depriving the party of its symbol of ‘bat’.

The PTI pleaded to the top court to restore the Peshawar High Court’s decision of returning the party’s election symbol. However, the apex court upheld the ECP’s order on the PTI intra-party election.

Following the March 3 election, Akbar S Babar once again challenged the intra-party polls in the ECP.

Babar, who later developed differences with party leadership, filed a plea in the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on March 5 against the party’s recently held ‘fraud’ intra-party election.

Later talking to the media, Babar requested that the results of the PTI’s intra-party elections should be declared null and void.