Lahore, Pakistan: After the verdict of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to declare the intra-party elections conducted by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) null and void, an academic debate has started in the country who is the supreme regulatory body for the electoral process? —-ECP or the higher Judiciary?
It has been a norm in Pakistan that political parties and even individual candidates have enjoy constitutional right to move to higher courts against the decisions taken by Election Tribunals and ECP. They mostly get stay orders in their favor and even reversal of decisions from the Supreme Court or manage to keep their cases waiting for decisions even till new elections take place in the country. In such practice, the roles of Election Tribunals and ECP are practically compromised. Qasim Khan Suri’s case is one of the examples of how much the ECP is powerless to execute its decisions.
On September 27, 2019, the Balochistan High Court’s election tribunal declared Qasim Khan Suri’s election to the National Assembly as void and ordered a re-election in the NA-265 (Quetta II) constituency. Qasim Suri was de-seated following the tribunal’s verdict but was allowed to contest the re-election. The NA-265 result had been challenged by Nawabzada Lashkari Raisani, who had filed a petition against alleged rigging in the constituency. Raisani was one of the candidates who had contested from NA-265 but had lost to Suri. The Balochistan National Party (BNP) candidate, in his petition, had contended that of a total of 114,000 votes cast during the polls in NA-265, “65,000 votes were invalid”. He had argued that the election had been “rigged” since a sizeable number of votes could not be verified.
On October 1, Suri approached the Supreme Court challenging his disqualification by the BHC’s election tribunal. In his petition, he stated that the tribunal did not review the evidence properly. He also requested the SC to declare his disqualification as null and void.
On October 02, 2019, the Election Commission of Pakistan de-notified National Assembly Deputy Speaker Qasim Khan Suri after the Balochistan High Court election tribunal declared his election null and void over rigging allegations and ECP ordered re-election in NA -265 (Quetta II).
Qasim Suri moved to the Supreme Court instantly and on October 7, 2019, the Supreme Court (SC) suspended the Balochistan High Court’s (BHC) election tribunal’s ruling of declaring the election of Qasim Suri null and void. Within four days of the ECP decision against Suri, the three-membered bench of the SC headed by Justice Umar Ata Bandial took up the hearing and suspended the Election Commission of Pakistan’s ruling in de-notifying Suri as the deputy speaker of the National Assembly. The then Justice Bandial said that as long as the case was being heard, the stay order would remain effective and it remained effective till the assembly completed its tenure—August 2023. This case is an evident example that neither the ECP nor the Election Tribunal has any authority in Pakistan although the constitution is clear that the ECP is the Supreme Body to look after electoral issues. Another example is that PTI kept delaying the Foreign Funding Case for seven years in ECP by manipulating rules and getting support from the higher judiciary.
Now in the latest situation, again ECP gave a verdict that PTI would surely challenge in higher courts. The ECP ruled that PTI did not hold the elections in line with its constitution, the Election Act, 2017, and the Election Rules, 2017, and was thus ineligible to obtain the election symbol of ‘bat’. These intra-party elections took place on Dec 3, following the ECP’s declaration that the intra-party polls held in June 2022 by the PTI were null and void. The ECP provided the PTI with a 20-day window to conduct fresh elections, warning that failure could result in the party becoming ineligible for its electoral symbol. On ECP instruction, PTI gathered over 50 persons and announced Barrister Guhar as the new Chairman of the party while PTI founding member Akbar S. Babar who fought a case against PTI foreign funding for seven years held a press conference in Islamabad and stated that he was denied to participate in intra-party election of PTI. Neither PTI shared the voter list with the media nor allowed the media to cover its intra-party elections and those who managed to attend the event said that there was no election held and just an announcement of a new Chairman was released. Everybody reported that it was a foul play, not an intra-party election.
Related Story: ECP’s Order regarding PTI intra-party election
In its decision, the ECP observed that “the PTI did not comply with the Commission’s directions rendered therein order dated 23rd November 2023 and failed to hold intra-party election in accordance with PTI prevailing Constitution, 2019 and Election Act, 2017, and Election Rules, 2017. Therefore, the certificate dated 4th December 2023 and Form-65 filed by the alleged Chairman, is hereby regretted and rejected accordingly. The provisions of Section 215 of the Election Act, 2017 are hereby invoked and PTI is hereby declared ineligible to obtain the Election Symbol, for which they have applied for”.
It may be noted here that the ECP announced PTI’s intra-party polls were invalidated, and hence Barrister Gohar Ali Khan, who became its new chairman, would no longer be the PTI chairman.
Since the ECP withdrew the election symbol from PTI, the party is facing an existential crisis as a political party and Akbar S. Babar believes that after the decision of the Election Commission, all the posts of PTI have become null and void. While talking to DND News Agency, Akbar S. Babar said that political parties are (were) based on democracy, a party that does not give a level playing field to workers is not democratic, the matter will not stop at PTI, it will also reach other parties. He believes that the decision of the Election Commission is a milestone, and all national institutions should stand with the ECP for strengthening this institution which is the sole constitutionally empowered regulatory body to manage electoral issues.
It is pertinent to mention that if PTI does not get an electoral symbol, PTI will also lose reserved seats for women and minorities in the upper house and lower houses, including the provincial assemblies.
If PTI does not get relief from the judiciary, PTI will face a big loss in the general elections as well as in reserved seats, and the Senate election, they will not get any seats based on general elections. According to the constitution, reserved seats are allotted only to registered parties and parties fighting on one electoral symbol.
