ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) recent-held intra-party elections were challenged at the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday.
PTI founding member Akbar S Babar, in his plea, requested that the ECP order the Imran Khan-led party to conduct fresh elections.
Following the elections held in Peshawar to elect the party’s new officeholders, including a replacement for ex-chairman Imran Khan, the party members voted in favour of Barrister Gohar Khan, the former PTI chief’s lawyer whom he nominated himself for the key post.
In the wake of the polls, held on 2 December, Babar refused to accept the elections and moved the electoral authority against the irregularities.
The senior politician said that he and other founding leaders are part of PTI following the high court’s decision.
Babar, along with other party members and former officeholders, filed their plea against rigged and fraudulent intra-party elections in PTI at the ECP headquarters in Islamabad.
Babr approached the ECP seeking its intervention in the matter as a member of PTI whose membership was validated by the electoral body.
The petitions requested that ECP declare the PTI intra-party polls held on 2 December 2023 null and void. It also prayed to direct the party to hold fresh polls as soon as possible.
Chequered History of PTI’s Intra-party Polls
Babar and others, in the petition, said that given the chequered history of PTI in conducting transparent intra-party elections, as partially documented in the ECP’s order of 3 November 2023, the ECP may appoint independent third-party monitors to review and monitor fresh polls.
He said that the party’s symbol of the “bat” may be held in abeyance as long as the PTI does not conduct fresh, transparent intra-party elections according to law.
